Fatal Stabbing at Chrysler Plant Halts Production

A fatal stabbing today at Chrysler’s Jefferson North assembly plant in Detroit, which builds Jeep Grand Cherokee and Dodge Durango SUVs, forced a halt to production and likely will cost the auto maker hundreds of units.

The plant builds 1,100 vehicles a day on two shifts, according to WardsAuto data. The morning shift was suspended and the second shift has been canceled. Other workers have been told to show up at their regular starting time.

The Chrysler worker was stabbed by a co-worker who fled the plant and fatally shot himself shortly afterward at a nearby city park, authorities said in a news conference today.

“Chrysler Group is deeply saddened by events that occurred at its Jefferson North Assembly Plant this morning,” the auto maker says in a statement. “Two employees were involved in an altercation inside the plant. One employee was stabbed and unfortunately pronounced dead at the scene. The Detroit Police Department currently is investigating.”

The United Auto Workers union also issued a statement. “The UAW expresses our deepest sympathy to the families of our members involved in the tragic incident today at Chrysler's Jefferson North Assembly Plant. Although many details are unknown at this time, we are deeply saddened by the loss of life.”

Tensions between the two workers had been building over the past several days and boiled over this morning, one worker told a local radio station.

The Grand Cherokee built at the plant is Chrysler’s second-best selling light truck and the ninth-best-selling truck in the U.S., with 99,536 deliveries through August, up 32.4% from year-ago. Chrysler has sold 27,066 Durangos so far this year, down 20.8% from prior-year.

The 2.7 million-sq.-ft. (250,830-sq.-m) plant employs nearly 2,800 workers. The state-of-the-art facility has been cited as an example of Chrysler’s turnaround from its 2009 bankruptcy, creating hundreds of new jobs over the past two years to build the redesigned SUVs.

President Obama visited the facility in 2010 and told workers they were among the nation’s brightest and “proved naysayers wrong” over the government’s bailout decision.

But the publicity has not been entirely positive. In 2010, a Detroit television station expose revealed Jefferson North employees drinking alcohol and taking drugs while on their lunch breaks. It was a black eye for the auto maker and made national news, leading to arrests, terminations and suspensions of the workers.

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