Months after 45-year-old John Robert Neumann Jr., was fired from a business here in an industrial area more than seven miles from downtown, he returned Monday morning — armed with a semiautomatic handgun and a hunting knife, authorities said.
Neumann crept in through a rear door at Fiamma, a factory that manufactures awnings and accessories for recreational vehicles, authorities said. At some point, he encountered an employee, who later told investigators that Neumann pointed a gun at her and told her to get out. Then, authorities said, he singled out others – shooting and killing five former colleagues, stopping at least once to reload.
“Most of the victims were shot in the head,” Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings said during an afternoon news conference. “Some were shot multiple times.”
When deputies arrived at the scene, they found four deceased victims — three men and a woman. A fifth was rushed to a hospital, where he also died, Demings said.
Neumann, the sheriff said, appeared to have committed suicide.
Four of the victims were identified by police as Kevin Clark, 53; Jeffrey Roberts, 57; Robert Snyder, 69; and Brenda Montanez-Crespo, 44. The Associated Press listed the fifth victim as Kevin Lawson, 46.
Demings said that about eight other people inside the building were not injured in the attack.
“We have no indication that this subject is a participant in any type of terror organization,” Demings told reporters Monday morning. “What this is at this point is likely a workplace violence incident.”
Demings, the sheriff, said Neumann, a former “disgruntled employee,” had a “negative relationship” with at least one of the victims.
The sheriff did not say why Neumann was fired by Fiamma in April, but he noted that about three years ago, deputies responded to an incident at the business in which Neumann was accused of battering another employee. Deputies did not file charges in the incident, he said.
Neumann, an Army veteran who was honorably discharged in 1999, had a criminal history that included a DUI and minor drug possession, Demings said. The sheriff said Neumann did not have a concealed weapons permit.
Following the tragic shooting, Shelley Adams told reporters that her sister, who works at Fiamma, was in the restroom Monday when she heard a bang. When she came out, she saw someone on the floor.
Adams said her sister called and kept repeating, “My boss is dead. My boss is dead.”
Luiz Gonzalez, 61, who owns Esperanza Shoe Repair in a business strip across the street from Fiamma, said about 8 a.m. Monday he heard someone screaming outside his shop. He said he ran to the front door and found a woman pleading with a passerby to use a phone.
“I was surprised,” Gonzalez said, adding that are typically no issues in the area. Moments later, he said, the police were everywhere.
“People came running out,” he said. “Police got them across the street on this side.”
The FBI dispatched members of the bureau’s Orlando office to the scene, where they are assisting in the investigation and working to determine the motivation, officials said.
Authorities did not immediately comment on a possible motive for the shooting, which occurred just a week before the anniversary of the Pulse nightclub massacre in downtown Orlando. That mass shooting killed 49 people and injured dozens of others. The attacker at Pulse, who was killed by police after an hours-long standoff inside the club, had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State.
“Because of the active nature of the investigation, we can’t comment on any motives at this time, but if a nexus to terrorism is discovered, we’ll update with that information as appropriate,” the FBI said in a statement Monday. “We’ll be working with Orange County to determine the reason for the shooting.”
It was not immediately clear whether anyone at the business who survived the shooting was taken to a hospital for treatment. One hospital not far from the scene said it had received no patients from the shooting.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott, R, asked residents across the state to pray for the families affected “by this senseless act of violence.”
“Over the past year, the Orlando community has been challenged like never before,” Scott said in a statement. “I have been briefed by our law enforcement officials on this tragic incident and Ann and I are praying for the families who lost loved ones today.”
Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs, R, said, “Unfortunately, we’ve seen this scenario play itself out in our community and in other communities across the nation, and it is incumbent upon all of us not to become complacent or become callous to these horrific situations, but for each of our citizens to be vigilant … if they see something that seems abnormal, they need to say something.”