One dead, 5 injured in Fla. shooting

A Florida man returned Friday to the Orlando high-rise office complex where he once worked and allegedly shot six people, killing one and sparking a manhunt that ended hours later at his mother’s apartment.

The second shooting rampage in two days, following the massacre at Fort Hood, Texas, prompted renewed calls by gun-control advocates for limits on sales.

The suspected gunman was identified as Jason Rodriguez, 40. Orlando Police Department officials said they responded to a call about 11:30 a.m. that shots had been fired in the Legions Place building. All of the victims worked on the eighth floor at the Reynolds, Smith & Hill architectural and engineering firm, which is Mr. Rodriguez’s former employer.

A company official said Mr. Rodriguez was an entry-level transportation engineer who was released in June 2007 for performance issues.

Asked by a television reporter outside a police station why he attacked his former co-workers, Mr. Rodriguez, in handcuffs, replied: “They left me to rot.”

The manhunt - which closed city streets and nearby Interstate 4 and forced schools to operate while locked down - began with a description of a man wearing a polo shirt and jeans and ended with the help of a telephone tip that Mr. Rodriguez had fled to his mother’s apartment, about six miles away from the crime scene.

Orlando Police Chief Val Demings called the incident tragic.

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

Meanwhile in Washington, policy advocates such as the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence used the mass shootings to make an argument for their position on gun ownership.

“America has seen an epidemic of horrific gun violence at churches and synagogues, workplaces, health clubs, high schools, universities, police stations and now Army bases. This latest tragedy, at a heavily fortified army base, ought to convince more Americans to reject the argument that the solution to gun violence is to arm more people with more guns in more places,” said Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. “Enough is enough.”

The National Rifle Association said this was no time for politics.

“This is a time for healing. This is a time for families to grieve and communities to mourn,” said NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam. “This is not the time for politics. Our thoughts, hearts and prayers are with grieving families, their loved ones and their friends during this difficult time.”

The scene in Orlando was one that has become almost familiar across the country - people running out of buildings or other facilities to escape a gunman.

On Thursday, a gunman killed 13 and wounded 31 people at the Fort Hood Army base in Texas. Authorities identified the suspect as Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, an Army psychiatrist.

In Orlando, Greg Cross, who works in a real estate office on the 12th floor, told the Associated Press that 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.”

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