A gunman shot a security guard inside a federal building in Manhattan late Friday, then killed himself, police said.
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As the gunman approached the metal detector, he immediately pulled out a gun and shot a security guard at close range, said O’Neill.
“We felt that this person had been given a raw deal to put it mildly and that there was no excuse for it and he had been treated very badly”, Pascrell said.
The senior guard was armed, but had no chance to defend himself, according to contractor FJC Security Services.
Witnesses say the scene was chaotic.
The slain guard “was well trained, cared deeply about his job and knew that building better than anyone else”, the company said. The New York Daily News said he was a retired Army Reserve captain outraged over being fired by the Department of Labor.
As he entered the magnetometer, it signaled, prompting [Idrissa Camara], who was working an overtime shift, to ask Mr. Downing to back up for a bag search, the official said.
U.S. Rep Bill Pascrell, whose office had tried to assist Downing in his fight with the federal government, said there was never any sign of mental illness from the killer. The reason for the shooting was unclear.
“Something made him snap”, said Rivka Glickman, a next-door neighbor to the Fort Lee, N.J., shooter.
Downing, 68, opened fire inside the building that houses an immigration court, passport processing center and a regional office for the Department of Labor, which oversees the bureau for which Downing once worked.
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Dozens of New York city police and FBI agents swarmed the area within minutes of the shooting.
