Aurora shooting victim, MSU grad

One of the five victims killed in an Aurora, Ill., manufacturing plant shooting Feb. 15 has been identified as a graduate of Mississippi State University. Josh Pinkard, 37, was plant manager at the Henry Pratt Co. – a firm that had made its name in the rubber seat butterfly valves business. Pinkard, a native of Holly Pond, Ala., held a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from 2005 at MSU and a master’s from the University of Alabama. While at MSU, Pinkard met his wife, Terra, who was from Laurel, Miss. They were the parents of three children. In April 2018, he was promoted to plant manager at the Aurora plant where he and four co-workers died at the hands of another employee, who was about to be terminated, according to The Associated Press. Right after learning Friday he was being fired from his job of 15 years, Gary Martin pulled out a gun and began shooting. WBRC-TV in Birmingham, Ala., reported in an interview with an uncle, the Rev. David Chambers, that Pinkard " texted his wife, ‘I love you. I’ve Pinkard is also survived by a twin sister, Gidget Wright of Cullman County, Ala. (Source: Cullman [Ala.] Times 02/16/19)