A disgruntled state transportation worker shot and killed four men at a maintenance yard before he was shot dead by police in a gunbattle that sent his former co-workers hopping fences and diving for cover.
An officer and another man were hospitalized for their injuries.More than 60 people were at the maintenance yard run by the state Transportation Department when Arturo Reyes Torres stormed in Thursday afternoon, armed with an assault rifle, a shotgun and a handgun, authorities said.
Witnesses said Reyes circled trailers in the pelting rain, firing through the windows with his assault rifle and methodically picking off employees, police Lt. Art Romo said.
Workers in white helmets and orange suits scrambled behind cars and hopped fences as they screamed in terror.
"I'm in the stockroom, and I hear bang, bang, bang!" Thien Nguyen said. "We just ran."
When police arrived, Reyes started to drive away, but a motorist blocked his car and the gunfight broke out.
"This guy in a brown Mercedes was shooting at vehicles in the lot, at tires, engines. Bam! Bam! Bam!" said George Priest, 53, of Anaheim, who saw the shooting unfold from a transmission shop where his car was being repaired. "This squad car pulls up and there's this full-scale exchange."
Police officers were "firing like almost toward where I was at and when I looked to see where they were firing I see this guy jump out of his car and he had a rifle in his hand," said Robert Rosario, 27, of Anaheim.
Reyes, 41, of Huntington Beach, who had worked at the yard for about 15 years, was fired last month after he was videotaped selling scrap aluminum from the yard, The Orange County Register reported Friday.
Three of the men shot by Reyes died at the yard. The fourth, Michael Kelley, 49, of Fullerton, died at University of California, Irvine Medical Center with several gunshot wounds to the chest, said nursing supervisor Nancy Rhomberg.