A small Kansas town is

reeling in the wake of another U.S. mass shooting that has claimed lives and injured as many as 20 people.

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The gunman in a series of shootings Thursday in Hesston, Kan., that left at least three people dead and as many as 30 injured had a sizable criminal history in Florida’s Broward County, records show.

Cedric Ford, 38, a painter at Excel Industries, about 35 miles north of Wichita, was shot and killed by law enforcement officers between 5:30 and 5:45 p.m., said Harvey County Sheriff T. Walton.

The sheriff said the number of people injured could be as high as 30. “This is just a horrible incident here,” he said. “It’s going to be a lot of sad people before this is all over.”

Ford has a long criminal history in Broward County, including multiple drug charges from 1994 to 1997. He was sentenced in 2005 to three years in prison for carrying a concealed weapon as a convicted felon. He was released in February 2007, according to the Florida Department of Corrections.

Over the years, Ford had been cited repeatedly for other minor infractions, such as riding a bicycle either without lights or with improper lights. According to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, he pleaded no contest to charges of gambling, trespassing and resisting an officer without violence.

The shooting at the turf care products manufacturer was reported shortly after 5 p.m., a Harvey County dispatcher said. Ford was armed with a long rifle and a handgun, according to Walton.

The Washington Post reported that the gunman opened fire at several locations before coming to his workplace.

The shooting started just a few hours into the shift at Excel. An employee who said he was in the plant said he heard gunshots and people shouting to get out of the building.

“Everybody was running,” said the employee, who did not to give his name.

He said the man, whom he recognized as a co-worker, seemed to be on a rampage. “He was coming at everybody,” the employee said.

He said he noticed two weapons: an AK-47 and some type of handgun.

Marty Pierce said he was working in the welding shop when he heard the paint guys yelling, “Fire. Fire. Fire.”

He said he thought the building was on fire and was ready to leave when he heard a “pop, pop, pop” and saw people scattering and running outside. He left the building through a side door.

Outside, he said he ran into a co-worker who said the shooter followed her outside. She hid behind a tree.

Excel employee Austin McCaskill said the gunman was “running through the plant just going crazy with a gun ... just randomly shooting people.”

After running outside with others, McCaskill said they saw “probably two or three people laying in the road.”

“One guy got shot in the back,” he said. “There was one guy who was shot in the leg. There were random people everywhere who had gunshot wounds.”