By Jamal Thalji, Lane DeGregory, Kameel Stanley and Shirl Kennedy, Times Staff Writers
Friday, November 6, 2009
Jason Rodriguez was arrested at his mom’s house in Orlando after police say he shot six people at his former company. One person was killed. Asked why he shot, he said, “They left me to rot.”
ORLANDO — From his office on the eighth floor, Mike Maurer heard two bangs and a noise that sounded like construction work.
Nothing unusual.
Then, as the attorney and former police officer stepped into the hallway to head to lunch, he smelled something an old cop never forgets: the smoky residue of gunfire.
The next moments played out in slow motion.
The bangs were gunshots, he realized. The noise was a scream. Something was terribly wrong.
By the time it was over, police say a man had killed one person and wounded five others after opening fire in the offices of the engineering firm that fired him two years ago. The shooting brought downtown Orlando to a standstill for hours and came one day after a military psychiatrist was accused of killing 13 people on a military base in Texas.
"I heard the shots. I heard the scream. You just don't fit it together," said Maurer, 38, who was uninjured. "You just don't think it's going to happen."
Police say Jason Rodriguez, 40, is the man responsible for Friday's chaos.
About 11:45 a.m., Rodriguez walked into the main entrance of Reynolds, Smith & Hills on the eighth floor of the 17-story Gateway Center, and pulled a handgun from a holster beneath his shirt, police say.
Several of his former co-workers recognized him.
Moments later, police say, Rodriguez pointed the gun at an employee standing near the receptionist's desk. The gunman fired at least two shots, killing Otis Beckford, 26.
Then, he kept going.
Rodriguez moved to the office's common area and began firing at random, according to a police account. He injured five people, none of whom have been identified.
Throughout the building, employees barricaded themselves in offices and waited for word from police.