Local News
Police: Man kills 1 at firm that fired him
By MIKE SCHNEIDER and ANTONIO GONZALEZ, Associated Press
Posted:
11/07/2009 12:01 PM
ORLANDO, Fla. -- A man who was so deep in debt that he did not have the money to visit his son 30 minutes away opened fire Friday at the engineering firm that fired him two years ago, killing one person and wounding five, authorities said.
As officers led a handcuffed Jason Rodriguez into a police station, a reporter asked the divorced 40-year-old why he had attacked his former colleagues.
"Because they left me to rot," said Rodriguez, who recently told a bankruptcy judge he was making less than $30,000 a year at a Subway sandwich shop and owed nearly $90,000.
The shooting on the eighth floor of an office tower paralyzed downtown Orlando for three hours. Police quickly tracked Rodriguez to his mother's home, spotted him through a window and ordered him to come out.
He surrendered peacefully and was in custody Friday evening, though he had not yet been formally charged in the shootings.
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