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Tyson Foods suspends company heir, CFO John R. Tyson after arrest for intoxication
Tyson Foods has suspended the company’s chief financial officer, John R. Tyson, after he was arrested for allegedly driving while intoxicated.
University of Arkansas police in Fayetteville, Arkansas, arrested Tyson, 34, early Thursday for driving under the influence, according to police records. Other charges included careless driving and making an illegal turn. He was released from custody the same day on a $1,105 bond and is scheduled to appear in court on July 15.
Tyson is the great-grandson of the company’s founder, John W. Tyson, and son of the food giant’s current chairman, John H. Tyson.
“We are aware that John Randal Tyson, Chief Financial Officer of Tyson Foods, was arrested for an alleged DWI. Tyson Foods has suspended Mr. Tyson from his duties effective immediately and named Curt Calaway as interim Chief Financial Officer,” Springdale, Arkansas-based Tyson Foods said in a statement
The incident is the second time in recent years that Tyson, a former investment banker who joined Tyson Foods in 2019, has been arrested. He was previously arrested in 2022 on charges of public intoxication and criminal trespassing after allegedly entering a Fayetteville woman’s home and falling asleep in her bed. The woman did not know who Tyson was and called the police, KNWA Fox 24 reported at the time.
Tyson pleaded guilty to both charges and settled them by paying fines and court fees. He also apologized in a companywide memo and said he was getting counseling for alcohol abuse.
A fourth-generation member of the family that controls the $19 billion meat-processing company, Tyson was named CFO in September of 2022. Tyson Foods, founded in 1935, has 139,000 employees and reported 2023 sales of $52.8 billion.
—The Associated Press contributed to this report
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Wisconsin school shooter was in contact with California man plotting his own attack, court documents say
The shooter who killed a student and teacher at a religious school in Wisconsin brought two guns to the school and was in contact with a man in California whom authorities say was planning to attack a government building, according to authorities and court documents that became public Wednesday.
Police were still investigating why the 15-year-old student at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison shot and killed a fellow student and teacher on Monday before shooting herself, Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes told the Associated Press Wednesday. Two other students who were shot remained in critical condition on Wednesday.
A Southern California judge issued a restraining order Tuesday under California’s gun red flag law against a 20-year-old Carlsbad man. The order requires the man to turn his guns and ammunition into police within 48 hours unless an officer asks for them sooner because he poses an immediate danger to himself and others.
Carlsbad is located just north of San Diego.
According to the order, the man told FBI agents that he had been messaging Natalie Rupnow, the Wisconsin shooter, about attacking a government building with a gun and explosives. The order doesn’t say what building he had targeted or when he planned to launch his attack. It also doesn’t detail his interactions with Rupnow except to state that the man was plotting a mass shooting with her.
CBS’ San Diego affiliate KFMB-TV reported that law enforcement searched the man’s home Tuesday night after the order was signed by the judge.
Police, with the assistance of the FBI, were scouring online records and other resources and speaking with the shooter’s parents and classmates in an attempt to determine a motive for the shooting, Barnes told the AP.
Police don’t know if anyone was targeted in the attack or if the attack had been planned in advance, the chief said. Police said the shooting occurred in a classroom where a study hall was taking place involving students from several grades.
“I do not know if if she planned it that day or if she planned it a week prior,” Barnes said. “To me, bringing a gun to school to hurt people is planning. And so we don’t know what the premeditation is.”
On a Madison city website providing details about the shooting, police disclosed Wednesday that two guns were found at the school, but only one was used in the shooting. A law enforcement source previously told CBS News the weapon used appears to have been a 9 mm pistol.
Barnes told the AP that he did not know how the suspected shooter obtained the guns and he declined to say who purchased them, citing the ongoing investigation.
No decisions have been made about whether Rupnow’s parents might be charged in relation to the shooting, but they have been cooperating, Barnes told the AP.
Abundant Life is a nondenominational Christian school that offers prekindergarten classes through high school. About 420 students attend the institution.
The Dan County Medical Examiner’s Office identified the two people killed Wednesday as 42-year-old Erin West and 14-year-old Rubi Vergara.
An online obituary on a local funeral site stated Vergara was a freshman who leaves behind her parents, one brother, and a large extended family. It described her as “an avid reader” who “loved art, singing and playing keyboard in the family worship band.”
West’s exact position with the school was unclear.
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