Jeffrey Johnson, a disgruntled worker laid off by an import company was killed in a shootout with police near the Empire State building today after he had gone inside the Midtown Manhattan building a shot a co-worker at close range and fled into the street.
The Empire State Building in New York killed two people and wounded at least nine others Friday, authorities said, according to CNN. The shooter was one of the two killed. They identified him as Jeffrey Johnson, 53, who was laid off last year and apparently killed a former co-worker Friday morning.
Johnson was laid off about a year ago at Hazan Imports and targeted a 41-year-old former colleague, shooting the man in the head and was declared dead at the scene. Meanwhile, nine other people were either wounded or grazed during the shooting that unfolded around 9 a.m.
Johnson fled east on West 33rd Street, his gun inside a black bag under his arm, a construction worker followed him and alerted nearby police, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.
"As the two officers approached Johnson, he pulled his .45 caliber semiautomatic pistol from his bag and fired on the officers, who returned fire, killing him," Kelly said.
The gunshots rang out at a time of day when the sidewalks around the building are packed with pedestrians and merchants were opening their shops.
During a press conference after the shooting, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said that it was still too early to know all the details of the tragedy. Bloomberg did mention, however, that some of the wounded may have been shot by police in the mayhem.
The mayor also tried to offer some words of comfort to the shaken city.
"New York City is the safest big city in the country," Bloomberg said. "But we are not immune to the national problem of gun violence."
