A GUNMAN has killed one person and injured five others in the offices of an engineering firm from which he was sacked more than two years ago, authorities said last night.
Jason Rodriguez, 40, surrendered three hours after the shooting yesterday, 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 why he did it, h
e replied: "Because they left me to rot."
Mr Demings said Rodriguez brought a handgun to the company on the eighth floor of an office block in the town centre where he once worked as an engineer, but investigators are not sure what his motive was.
"This is a tragedy, especially on the heels of the tragedy in Fort Hood that is on our minds," Mr Demings said.
Camille Previlon said her uncle, engineer Guy Lungenbel, was shot in the back and was in a stable condition.
Everyone who was shot was in the offices of Reynolds Smith & Hills. The five survivors were in stable condition, Mr Demings said.
Company spokesman Mike Bernos said Rodriguez was an entry-level engineer who was dismissed in June 2007 after working there for a year.
"His performance wasn't up to our standards, so we terminated him," Mr Bernos said. There had been no contact between the company and Mr Rodriguez since then.
After the lunchtime shooting, some people said they had barricaded themselves in their offices while the gunman was on the loose.
