Fed-up sausage-maker guns down food inspectors

SAN LEANDRO, Calif. - A sausage maker accused of fatally shooting three food inspectors at his factory had grown furious with the government's scrutiny in recent months and may have snapped, according to people who know him.

Police said Stuart Charles Alexander, 39, gunned down two U.S. Department of Agriculture inspectors and an investigator from the state Department of Food and Agriculture who were at his Santos Linguisa Factory to document conditions Wednesday afternoon.

Waving and firing his handgun, Alexander then chased another state food investigator out of the small factory, police said, before stopping and surrendering to a bicycle officer a half-block away. The fourth investigator was unhurt.

None of the investigators was armed. The victims were described only as two men and a woman, ages 30 to 50, who were shot many times at about 3:30 p.m. One was carrying a camera to take pictures of conditions at the factory, said police Lt. Dan Marchetti.

Alexander had shut his factory in January after the USDA ordered him to raise cooking temperatures to acceptable levels, according to a February report in the San Leandro Times weekly newspaper.

Inspectors visited frequently in subsequent months, with Alexander's shop closing and reopening several times.

Alexander - who has a history of legal and financial woes, but ran for mayor in 1998 - called for public donations to aid his fight. He posted a sign that read: ''To all our great customers, the USDA is coming into our plant harassing my employees and me, making it impossible to make our great product.'' The sign was still up on Wednesday.

''The inspectors were on him, and he was getting nasty and they were getting nasty,'' said Mike Smith, 71, who described himself as one of Alexander's closest friends. ''They kept pushing, pushing, pushing - it was too much pressure. I told Stuart, 'You better cool it, buddy.' He was a good guy, but people snap.''

Late Wednesday scores of police detectives, FBI agents and evidence technicians swarmed the sausage. The FBI was involved because federal investigators were killed.

Officers arrived at the factory after receiving numerous reports of shots fired. Bicycle patrolman Rick Cahall found Alexander standing on the sidewalk unarmed.

After Alexander was arrested, officers broke through a window of the factory because all the doors were locked. They found the victims' bodies in the front of the store, where customers would pay for and pick up sausages at a counter, Marchetti said. At least three handguns were also found inside, he said.

Alexander was booked on suspicion of three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder, Marchetti said.

Authorities did not release many details about the relationship between Alexander and the inspectors, but Detective Sgt. Chris Lux said this was not the first time the government agents had dropped by Alexander's store.

''They were out here (Wednesday) on an inspection for hygienic problems at the plant. That's been going on for a while, since about January,'' Lux said. ''The (business) has been open, closed, open, closed. He would lose his permit, and then correct the problems, and then get the permit back again.''

Alexander has a long history of financial problems, according to court records and city officials. He filed for bankruptcy in September 1998 and again last January. He has been sued at least five times, including twice by old family friends who lent him money.

Alexander was arrested in 1996 on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, elder abuse and other charges for allegedly attacking a 75-years-old neighbor.

(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.shns.com.)