She witnessed a workplace shooting: Now her life will never be the same.

Donna Shroyer

Donna Shroyer’s life changed dramatically April 13, 2024 when shots were fired close to her CNC workstation at Dana Corp.

Around 1 a.m. a co-worker diverted her from the line of fire just after she heard gunfire and saw the smoke rise from gunshots.

Donna tells her story here.

A supervisor and union employee were physically fighting as other employees rushed to break up the two, while Donna ran to another area of the factory to get help and her co-worker dialed 9-1-1, Shroyer said.

There’s no doubt the shooting occurred, United Steel Workers 903 vice president George Hoover told The Probable Cause.

“The supervisor left the plant, went back into - tried to murder a union member,” Hoover said. “He hit the guy in the head with this handgun, gun went off, there was a struggle on the floor and the gun went off again. They didn’t keep his gun.”

Because of this experience, Shroyer hasn’t been able to sleep more than three hours at a time, even with the help of sleep and other meds.

She forgets to eat and fights anxiety every day and night.

There are times when she can’t walk through the doors of the plant on West State Boulevard.

But what is almost more unnerving to her is the lack of company response and of law enforcement.

It’s been a year now and no charges have been filed. The Probable Cause sent an email requesting comment or a statement from the Dana Corporation, based in Toledo, Ohio. There was no response.

The Probable Cause filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) with the city of Fort Wayne/FWPD. The request was denied.  

“The case, however, is an investigatory record and will not be disclosed at this time,” was the response, adding that there is no probable cause that the city legal department is aware of.                                                                                                                                                    

Shroyer is confused over that. Hoover said the union was also denied a police report even though police responded at the time and it’s on the FWPD log.

Even more confusing is a comparison with the case of the Georgetown Kroger shooter, Richard Klaff, who on May 24, 2024, recorded himself in a men’s bathroom with his guns and rants. He then went out into the store and shot his gun at individuals while they were shopping. He was charged  with three counts of attempted murder, all Felony 1,  and criminal recklessness.

He will be sentenced April 25 after agreeing to a plea deal of 40 years with seven years suspended, court records indicate. 

The response from Dana has been non existent and even the union was slow to respond until Hoover became aware that Donna was having trouble getting help from workmen’s comp that is on site at the plant, Shroyer said.

Since then, the union has helped her to get medical help including counseling, but Shroyer believes it will be a long time before she can ever relax.

The company was “causing a lot of problems for the guy who was almost murdered,” Hoover said. “He got suspended. I as the vice president, filed a grievance - several of them filed and information requests. If we had known she was having issues….the company refused to give us any information,” Hoover said.

Shroyer has had other experiences that could have broken her. Her upbringing was tough; she ran away from home when she was 12 years old. She wound up in foster care, but by the time she was 18 and an Elmhurst High School graduate, she has worked. Most of that time was in factories.

Her greatest achievement, she says with tears in her eyes, are raising her two daughters. Both are adults and successful in their own right.

She and her girls were all home on Nov. 9, 2017, when they heard gunshots coming from the house next door.  Shroyer went outside just as the ambulance was pulling away from the East Sherwood Terrace home with victims Kayla Harris and Danielle Carter, both struggling to live. Harris would died at the hospital.

Nicole Saylor had been shot dead in the driveway. Even though she saw someone run off wearing a hoodie, she got out her garden hose to wash away the Saylor’s blood. 

“Nobody needed to see that,” Shroyer said during an interview April 5.

No charges have been filed in that double homicide/triple shooting either.

But she has hope. Here’s her story.