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The Virginia Beach authorities claim that they are still working to determine what motivated DeWayne Craddock to introduce two handguns into his municipal office last week and start firing.
In the meantime, the survivor and counselor described how Craddock had crossed a corridor in front of a number of employees on the second floor of Building 2 before firing his first shots at him. inside the building, in an area where engineers and supervisors sat.
"He was apparently looking for specific people, at least in the beginning," said Louis Jones, a Virginia Beach councilman and former mayor whose grandson Jack Jones was doing an internship in the public works department and working on the second floor. when the shooting took place.
Craddock, a longtime engineer from the city's public services department, handed a short letter of resignation on the morning of the shooting. He wrote that he was giving his two-week notice "for personal reasons" and that "it was a pleasure to serve the city," according to a copy of the email sent by the city on Monday.
City director Dave Hansen said Sunday that issues relating to Craddock's status in the area of employment were part of the ongoing investigation, but that Craddock had not been dismissed before Friday and that there was "no problem of discipline in progress".
The city has expurgated the names of the person or persons to whom Craddock sent the email. But a colleague from Craddock told CNN that Richard Nettleton, a 28-year-old city employee who had been killed in this back-office area, had received the letter.
Councilman Jones said his grandson was alone in an office on the second floor just after 4pm. Friday, when the gunman approached the door, looked at it, and then went back to go further down the hall.
Shortly after, Jones said that his grandson had heard a first shot. The 21-year-old is known to have saved lives as he ran down the hallway shouting "gun, gun, gun" and "let everyone out", said the councilor in an interview.
Mike, an engineer working in Building 2 who gave only his first name to CNN, said that he and his colleagues were first made aware of the danger by a screaming woman coming from behind the second floor. , where were the technical supervisors.
"I heard a scream and we all started to scream, and then we heard gunshots," he said.
Nettleton and Katherine Nixon, two long-time city engineers and community service supervisors, were sitting behind the second-floor hallway. They were killed in the shooting.
Nixon was not in Craddock's chain of command, according to a city official.
Randy Allen, another armed man supervisor, was not injured during the shooting, according to a city official. Allen's whereabouts are unknown at the time of the shooting.
Allen declined to comment to CNN when contacted this weekend.
Another manager, Stephen Motley, appears in the city's organizational chart as the head of utility engineering in the utility department. CNN asked Motley to comment.
Four people were hospitalized after the shooting. They have not been identified.
On Friday, at the first press conference after the shooting – at a time when details of an investigation are still generally fluent -, Virginia Beach Police Chief James Cervera said that Craddock had entered the building shortly after 16 hours. and "immediately began shooting indiscriminately at all the victims".
However, at subsequent press conferences, Cervera declined to comment when asked if the shooter had targeted victims. On Tuesday, a spokeswoman for the Virginia Beach Police Department said she could not discuss the ongoing investigation.
Authorities questioned city employees who survived the shooting while they were working to replenish the shooter's movements inside the building, police said.
Before entering the building on Friday afternoon, Craddock shot dead a contractor sitting in a car parked outside, authorities said. Craddock used two handguns during the shooting, one of which was equipped with a noise suppression device, which, according to witnesses, attenuated the sound of gunshots.
Even after starting his outbursts, Craddock seemed to spare some city workers he was meeting while shooting at others.
"We met a man with a gun in his hand, but the film looked so theatrical because of the long magazine and the suppressor covering it," Carlstrom said. "He took a look at me, but he never raised the gun on me to shoot me."
Authorities said victims were found on several floors of the four-storey municipal building, which includes a basement.
Christi DeWar, another city employee who survived the shooting, told that she was huddling in an office that she and her colleagues had barricaded with a metal filing cabinet.
DeWar said he heard Craddock roam about what looked like the first floor of the building. According to DeWar, a colleague taking shelter with DeWar later stated that she was talking with someone on the third floor who had heard the shooter.
Four police officers met Craddock on the second floor of the building about seven to ten minutes after the first investigators were sent for the first time, according to police chief Cervera.
Cervera said the police had engaged the shooter in a long shootout in many offices before barricading themselves in a room on the second floor.
"They understood the need to enter this office so that he would not escape and commit more violence on the second floor, so they had to find a way to break through the door. This decision is not easy to make, "said Cervera.
The police broke down the door and found Craddock inside, shot dead but still alive, said Cervera. Cervera said that during their training, the police immediately began to help the gunman, although he died shortly after.
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