A man shot and killed his co-worker in front of his workmates because she took long lunch breaks.
The alleged shooter told police he planned the shooting in the office in front of the other staff because she “had caused him pain and he wanted her to feel pain.”
He said that she had reported him to HR after he became obsessed with her and started tracking how long her work breaks were.
The man, from Lewisville, Texas, was arrested after the woman called Tamhara Collazo was shot and later told police his co-workers probably thought he was “a psychopath”.
Police were able to respond immediately to the report of the shooting as the temporary headquarters of the Lewisville Police Department shares a parking lot with the company, Allegiance Trucks.
Despite responding immediately and rushing the victim to hospital she died.
Travis Lee Merrill, 51, was arrested at the scene.
In their arrest affidavit, police report that Merrill agreed to speak with detectives about the matter and admitted to becoming obsessed with Collazo.
He reportedly told them he “was obsessed with Collazo and began getting ever increasingly angry by her taking what he considered to be unauthorised long breaks during work hours, as well as not paying any attention to him.”
After enduring the allegedly unwanted attention and scrutiny for several months, Collazo reported Merrill to the company’s HR department and told him to stop watching her breaks, per the affidavit.
The court document asserts that Merrill was ordered to speak with a counsellor over the phone before he would be allowed to return to work, but his behaviours only escalated after that.
He told police that he felt his work colleagues probably considered him “a psychopath” after his return to work. Even more frustrating for him, according to court documents, Collazo began to intentionally avoid him.
Being ignored apparently only made Merrill angrier, per police, at which point he told detectives he started buying guns and “practiced his movements with them” at home.
He allegedly told police that he’d brought guns to work on different occasions, including showing up to work once on his day off and sitting in the parking lot.
He even said, according to the affidavit, he’d brought guns the day before the shooting, but told detectives it “didn’t feel like the right time.”
Last Thursday, Merrill admitted to detectives that he followed Collazo into the parking lot when she took her lunch break and observed her sitting her car, as she usually did while on break.
He told police he went to his own car, retrieved and prepared two revolvers to bring back into the office with him and await her return.
“As she re-entered after lunch, he followed her inside to her cubicle and ‘ambushed’ her, firing the gun several times.”
The police report states that Collazo was struck five times in the shooting, which was witnessed by two dozen workers.
Merrill’s meticulous obsession over Collazo’s break times continued after police arrived. Once in custody, he detailed the exact dates, times and durations of each of her lunch breaks to detectives.
As for the shooting in front of their office full of coworkers, Merrill said that was exactly his intention.
According to the affidavit, the suspect allegedly told police that Collazo “had caused him pain, and he wanted her to feel pain, so he intentionally planned to shoot her at work with everyone there.”
In a statement, Allegiance Trucks says that the office has been closed indefinitely and they are “providing support to the victim’s family and the rest of our employees who, thankfully, were unharmed.”
“We are also working closely with law enforcement during their ongoing investigation,” the company’s statement continued. “We ask for the community’s support as our company has unfortunately joined the growing national community of workplaces affected by gun violence.”
Merrill is currently being held in the Denton County Jail. His bond has been set for $10 million.
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