Suspected Bunn shooter remembered as quiet
As Mike Hafliger was leaving Bunn-O-Matic around 11 a.m. on Friday, he saw several familiar faces and gave them all quick goodbyes. The last person he saw before he walked out the door was Michael L. Collins Jr., who allegedly opened fire on co-workers seconds later.
“I talk to him every day I work with him,” said Hafliger, 53, of Kincaid. “He seemed like the normal, quiet Mike. He’s kind of quiet, you know, but not real quiet.
“I know those other (victims). I joked with them on the way out before I got to (Collins). I walked out and said, ‘Hey Mike, I’ll see you Monday,’ I walked out the door and as I got out the door, I got a little way across the building and then I heard gunshots and then everybody started running out of the building.”
Hafliger, a welder at the facility in the fab welding area, has worked there for 22 years. He said Collins even responded to his goodbye: “He said the same thing, ‘Have a good weekend.’”
Hafliger said he never saw signs that Collins was capable of shooting co-workers.
“He’s a nice guy; I never thought he’d do anything like that,” Hafliger said. “They (the victims) were all good employees; none of them ever did anything wrong.”
Collins, 48, of Springfield, was found dead in his truck of a self-inflicted gunshot wound Friday afternoon in Morgan County.
Gordon Dixson, who retired as a weekend supervisor from Bunn-O-Matic in July 2015 and lives in Palm Coast, Florida, also remembered Collins as a quiet guy.
“He’s a nice guy,” said Dixson, 63. “Once again, it’s a guy you’d never think would do something like this — real quiet guy.”
Dixson worked with Collins every Friday for eight years and said their conversations usually revolved around cars and Collins’ excitement over getting a big screen television.
“Working on cars or stuff like that with engines, just stupid stuff — innocuous stuff you talk about at work with someone you don’t know that well,” Dixson said.
Contact Ryan Mahan: ryan.mahan@sj-r.com; Twitter.com/RyanMahanSJR.