In a shocking turn of events, lawyer Mark Hummels, while walking out of a mediation yesterday, was shot and went to the hospital in need of surgery.  Sadly, he just passed away from his gunshot wounds.  Apparently one of the participants, Arthur Douglas Harmon, in the Phoenix Arizona based mediation left the mediation while stating he needed to get something.  After he was gone for a period of time, they thought he was not coming back.  When the lawyer and others were leaving the mediation, the man allegedly fired upon them leaving the lawyer and another woman initially wounded and Fusion Contact Centers chief executive officer Steve Singer dead.  

Harmon was there mediating a dispute against Fusion Contact Centers attempting to resolve a dispute related to some contract work he was doing for the Center.  It seems the Center was not pleased with Harmon's work and wanted him to repay most of the $30,000 Harmon was paid on a $47,000 contract.  Obviously and unfortunately, Harmon had no plans on paying the money back or amicably resolving the dispute.  After killing two mediation participants, he was later found dead in his apartment of an apparent suicide.

It goes without saying that these things are not supposed to happen and are not expected to happen at mediations, where the objective is to find peace amongst turmoil.  This situation is just one more in a long line of reasons why we need better gun control in this country.