HORROR IN THE WORKPLACE

A FEMALE EMPLOYEE who was escorted out of the Kraft Foods building in the Northeast after being suspended last night returned within minutes with a .357 Magnum and began firing at fellow workers, police said.

She killed two female employees on the third floor and shot and critically wounded a male employee in a stairwell, police said. Sources identified her as Yvonne Hiller, whose address not immediately available.

Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey told reporters that Hiller then went to the second floor and hid in an office.

She was unaware that in an adjoining office, seven employees were hiding. They called police and told them where she was.

As police approached her hiding place, Hiller fired a shot through the wall at them and at one point reloaded her weapon, Ramsey said. Hiller surrendered when SWAT team members entered the room about 9:30 p.m., he said.

The drama at the plant, on Byberry Road near Roosevelt Boulevard, began about 8:35 p.m., when Hiller was escorted from the building after being suspended from her job, Ramsey said. It wasn't clear why Hiller, a 15-year Kraft employee, had been suspended.

She got into her car and several minutes later drove through a barrier, jumped out with the high-powered handgun, ran into the building and began shooting.

Police, firefighters and emergency equipment swarmed around the building.

About 100 employees, who make Oreo cookies, Philadelphia Cream Cheese and Oscar Mayer bacon, were evacuated, and busy Roosevelt Boulevard was temporarily shut down.

The wounded man was admitted to Aria Health's Torresdale hospital in critical condition.

Chief Inspector Joseph Sullivan hailed the actions of a mechanic who encountered the woman on the third floor and followed her to the second, talking with police all the while on his cell phone and encouraging other employees to evacuate.

At one point, Hiller realized she was being followed, turned around and fired at the man. He sprained an ankle ducking the bullet and required hospital treatment, Sullivan said.

"His actions made a big difference to police," Sullivan said. "Inside that building is a labyrinth. Without his information, police would have had trouble making their way through the building."

Tanya Bussey, whose sister Valerie Johnson works in the building, got a scare when her sister called her after the shooting erupted.

"My sister called and said there was someone in the building who was shooting and that she was going to hide, and then her phone went dead," Bussey said.

She said that panic gripped her and that she and another relative raced to the building. Her sister finally called back and said she was safe and sound.

Andrew Wells said his father-in-law, who works for Kraft, phoned his own wife and said, "Someone came down the hallway. There's shooting in the bakery."

Earl Cooper, an electrician at Kraft, said he and a few other employees were working in a small lab when a supervisor entered and shouted, "Keep everybody back!"

"Then I heard a couple of gunshots," he said. "Kraft is like a big family. People were worried if their friends were all right."