The gunman walked into a building at 201 Varick Street in lower Manhattan around 5:05 p.m. on Friday and shot the guard with a handgun. The suspect was pronounced dead at the scene, while the security guard was transported to a nearby hospital.
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Federal Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson arrived on the scene and toured the building.
Investigators trying to determine a motive planned to search Downing’s home. The suspect in the shooting is believed to have then committed suicide with the same weapon, it said.
The shooter appears to have acted alone and the building had been secured, police said.
According to police, 68-year-old Kevin Downing walked into the federal building, in the SoHo neighborhood of New York City, and started firing.
Police stated the motive of the capturing was nonetheless unknown however that the investigation was in its earliest levels. The gunman had no apparent ties to the company, FJC said in a statement.
Downing was a former federal employee at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, police Deputy Commissioner for Intelligence and Counterterrorism John Miller said.
The motivation for the shooting is still unknown, but Downing, a retired US Army Reserves captain, was apparently angry that he was fired from his government job in 1999. He visited with federal employees inside the building to offer support, he said.
We will keep you updated on the latest. “For now, we are keeping his family and loved ones in our thoughts and prayers”.
Downing had endured a string of misfortunes as his live-in fiancee died of breast cancer, his house was in foreclosure and he suffered health problems after a auto accident, Pascrell said.
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The building was placed on lockdown and then evacuated following the shooting.
