A dispute over a CD player at a Huntsville employment office ended in a mass shooting that killed 22-year-old Billy Eugene Knox Jr. The shooting occurred on February 25, 2003, inside the Labor Ready Inc. office, where about 15 people had gathered seeking day labor. Witnesses say an argument involving 23-year-old Emanuel Burl Patterson escalated and Patterson produced a 9 mm semiautomatic handgun and opened fire.

Billy Knox Jr. and his 61-year-old father, Billy Wayne Knox, were both shot inside the building. Patterson moved toward the agency’s front steps and fatally shot 47-year-old Benjamin Ferguson and 46-year-old David Seiler there; a fifth man was wounded in the leg and survived. Patterson fled, was later located at his apartment, exchanged gunfire with officers during an eight-hour standoff and surrendered. He was charged with capital murder and attempted murder.

Are there readers who were at the Labor Ready office that morning or who knew Billy Knox Jr. and his family and can share what happened that day?