On Friday afternoon, July 2, 2004, 23-year-old Travis Lamont Nelson of Kansas City, Kansas, was shot and killed at the ConAgra Foods meat-processing plant on Speaker Road during a workplace shooting. Eyewitnesses say the gunman entered the facility’s break room armed with two handguns and that Nelson was the first person targeted; a coworker described seeing him fall after the first shot, a pool of blood quickly forming around him.

The attack killed five people that day, including Nelson, his uncle Lonnie E. Ellingburg, and a relative Ardell Edwards; two other employees were wounded. Reports indicate the shooter had been rehired about six weeks earlier after a layoff and may have had grievances about job assignments. Authorities concluded a single person carried out the shootings and that the gunman died at the scene.

Funeral services for Travis Nelson were held July 10, 2004, at the Miracle Rejoicing Worship Center, and he was buried at Highland Park Cemetery. If anyone worked at the plant then or has information about Nelson’s life or the events that afternoon, please share what is known.