1 Dead, 5 Wounded In Downtown Orlando Shooting – Suspect: ‘They Left Me To Rot’

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jason-rodrigues[Video below.] Updated below, 3:38 p.m.: A man has killed one person and wounded five others in an Orlando high-rise building.  Orlando Regional Medical Center said it is treating four patients, three men and one woman. All are in stable condition with non-life-threatening injuries, the hospital said. The victims range in age from 23 to 49 years old.

Orlando Police Sgt. Barb Jones said the shooting took place at Reynolds, Smith & Hills, an engineering and construction firm located on the 8th floor at the 16-story Gateway Center.

Orlando police are asking that anyone with family who works at Reynolds, Smith & Hills go to College Park Baptist Church, located at 1914 Edgewater Drive, so they can speak with them. The lobby is filled with officers in SWAT gear, carrying assault weapons, ready to search.

UPDATED, 3:38 p.m.:

The gunman who opened fire today in the offices of an engineering firm was let go from there more than two years ago, authorities said, killing one person and injuring five others. Jason Rodriguez, 40, surrendered about three hours later, after officers saw him through the window of his mother’s home and asked him to come outside, Orlando Police Chief Val Demings said.

 Asked by a reporter outside the police station why he did it, he replied: “Because they left me to rot.”

Demings said Rodriguez brought a handgun to the firm in a downtown office tower where he once worked as an engineer, but investigators are not sure what his motive was.

“This is a tragedy, no doubt about it, especially on the heels of the tragedy in Fort Hood that is on our minds,” Demings said. “I’m just glad we don’t have any more fatalities or any more injuries than we currently have.”

Charles W. Price, an attorney who represented Rodriguez in a bankruptcy case, declined to comment.

Camille Previlon told The Associated Press her uncle, engineer Guy Lungenbel, was shot in the back and was able to talk but had not said much about the shooting.

“He is stable,” she said. “He’s just hurting real bad in the back.”

Everyone who was shot was in the offices of Reynolds Smith & Hills, on the eighth floor. The five survivors were in stable condition, Demings said.

Company spokesman Mike Bernos said Rodriguez was an entry-level engineer who was fired in June 2007 after working there for a year.

“His performance wasn’t up to our standards, so we terminated him,” Bernos said. There had been no contact between the company and Rodriguez since then.

After the lunchtime shooting, some people streamed out of the Legion Place building while others holed up in their offices. A major highway was closed and nearby schools were locked down.

Greg Cross, who works in a real estate office on the 12th floor, said he and his co-workers barricaded themselves inside after hearing about the gunman on television.

“We were terrified,” he said. “We locked the door and put a filing cabinet in front of the door and just waited.”

Mark Vella, who works in a different office on the same floor, said he and five co-workers also pulled a filing cabinet in front of their door. They prayed and talked about what to do if the gunman showed up.

“It was a little scary, a little unnerving,” Vella said. “We were afraid the guy was still in the building and making the rounds.”

The area of the shooting is over 15 miles from the tourist attractions in Orlando, including Disney World, reports CBS station WFOR-TV.

Rodriguez is believed to be the only shooter. Orlando Police started searching the area saying Rodriguez may have escaped in a silver 2002 Nissan Xterra. All of the shooting victims are reportedly in stable condition, according to the Orlando Fire Department.

Reynolds, Smith and Hill company spokesman Mike Bernof told CNN that all the people shot were in the firm’s office. Rodriguez, an engineer, was released in June 2007 for performance issues, Bernof said. He could not say why. The firm performs transportation engineering work with the Florida Department of Transportation.

Multiple schools, along with the Gateway Center were under lockdown while police searched the area. The lockdown was lifted for the business shortly after 2:21 p.m. Gateway Center is a 16-story office building that was constructed 10 years ago.

Click below to view a video of the suspect being arrested:

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{Orlando.com/CBS Broadcasting/AP/Matzav.com Newscenter}


1 COMMENT

  1. meshugana !!!!!!!! if any person who was mad at his employer would shoot him the world would be missing alotmore people

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