November 7, 2009
By SEWELL CHAN
A 40-year-old engineer who was dismissed from his job two years ago returned to his former workplace in downtown Orlando, Fla., on Friday morning and opened fire, killing one person and shooting five others, the authorities said.
A police SWAT team detained the man, who was identified as Jason S. Rodriguez, about three hours later. The police said Mr. Rodriguez fled the building — the 18-story Gateway Center, a glass-and-granite office tower with easy access to major highways — and went to his mother’s house, about an eight-mile drive away, after the shooting.
“He was located at his mother’s residence, and he is in custody,” Val B. Demings, the Orlando police chief, said at an afternoon news conference.
Public records indicate that Mr. Rodriguez was twice divorced, most recently in 2006. He worked for Reynolds, Smith & Hill, a transportation consulting firm based in Jacksonville, Fla. He was dismissed “for performance reasons” in July 2007, after working there about a year, a company spokesman said.
Mr. Rodriguez opened fire around 11 a.m. Eastern time, and the police arrived at the building, at 1000 Legion Place, within a minute after 911 calls began pouring in, Chief Demings said.
“Their first concern was the preservation of life, and to rescue those that may be injured,” she said. “They began a building search of each of the floors.”
Using license plate information, crime lab tips and cellphone records, the police were able to track down Mr. Rodriguez at his mother’s house, on Curry Ford Road, Chief Demings said at the news conference, where she was joined by Mayor Buddy Dyer and the city’s fire chief.
She said the authorities believed Mr. Rodriguez acted alone. “Our brief intelligence at this point was that it was one lone gunman,” she said.
Officials said they did not know whether the shooting was a copycat attack related to the mass shooting at Fort Hood, Tex., on Thursday, in which Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, killed 13 people and wounded 28 others.
“I really wish I knew the motive,” Chief Demings said. “Our investigators are going to be working around the clock to find out why he did what he did today.”
Michael T. Bernos, the spokesman for Reynolds, Smith & Hill, said the company had not heard from Mr. Rodriguez since he was dismissed two years ago. “He was let go for performance reasons,” Mr. Bernos said. “I believe his work just didn’t come up to our standards.”
As an entry-level engineer, Mr. Rodriguez would have worked on state road and bridge projects, on tasks like making sure the projects had appropriate environmental permits, Mr. Bernos said.
The company has about 800 employees in 28 cities around the country. “We’re very shocked,” Mr. Bernos said. “We’re all just stunned.”
Federal court records indicate that Mr. Rodriguez filed for personal bankruptcy protection on May 26. At the time, he stated that he had been working at a Subway sandwich shop for the past nine months.
The bankruptcy case was closed on Sept. 24. Charles W. Price, a bankruptcy lawyer in Fern Park, Fla., who represented Mr. Rodriguez in the case, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Mayor Dyer praised the Orlando Police Department’s handling of the situation, saying, “This was really a model of how to respond to an incident like this.”
Before the arrest was announced and the building search was completed, people were seen streaming out of the building, while others told local television stations by phone that they had barricaded themselves inside their offices. Rows of ambulances lined up outside the Gateway Center as police snipers took up positions around the building and officers on foot and horseback searched the area, The Associated Press reported.
Gerry Gilgo, who works on a floor where shooting occurred, told The A.P. that she had been meeting a co-worker at the elevators for lunch.
“She yelled, ‘There are gun shots! There are gun shots! Get back in your office,’” Ms. Gilgo said.
Police closed Interstate 4 to traffic in both directions near the building during the search, and a nearby school was locked down, The Orlando Sentinel reported.
Robbie Brown contributed reporting from Atlanta, and Alain Delaquérière and Barbara Gray contributed research from New
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