ORLANDO, Fla. _ Officials have identified four of the five employees killed in a shooting Monday at Fiamma, a business that makes awnings for RVs and campers northeast of Orlando, Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings said.
The victims are Robert Snyder, 69; Brenda Montanez-Crespo, 44; Kevin Clark, 53; Jeffrey Roberts, 57; and Kevin Lawson, 47.
"Most of the victims were shot in the head; some were shot multiple times," Demings said.
Shooter John Robert Neumann Jr., who was honorably discharged from the Army in 1999, killed himself before deputies approached, Demings said. Neumann is a former "disgruntled employee" who was fired in April.
Neumann, 45, was armed with a handgun, a large hunting knife and possibly some smaller knives when he entered the business. Demings said he singled out his victims and reloaded his gun at least once.
"One of the surviving witnesses said (Newman) pointed the gun at her and told her to get out of there," Demings said.
Demings said the Sheriff's Office responded to Fiamma about three years ago, when Neumann allegedly battered an employee. There were no charges at that time. Demings said his criminal history includes DUI and minor drug offenses.
The shooting happened in multiple locations at the business, Demings said. It is unclear how Neumann got into the building. There were about 12 employees inside the building at the time of the shooting.
The shooting has nothing to do with terrorism.
"The situation here appears to be very different from the situation at Pulse," Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs said. She commended the Sheriff's Office for its quick action.
Shortly after the shooting, Jennifer Blevins said she could not reach her father, Robert Snyder.
"I saw the post on Facebook, and my heart sank," Blevins said.
Hours later, she got the news she had been dreading: Her father was one of the five people killed at Fiamma.
Shelley Adams said her sister, who works at Fiamma, was in the bathroom when she heard shots.
"She came out and saw a man on the floor," she said.
Adams said her sister is OK and was taken to a nearby fire department training facility. "God had his hand on her," she said.
The Orange County Fire and Rescue Training and Command Simulation Academy is about a half-mile away. An employee there would only say, "We've had some things going on here today."
Adams was at a loss of words as to why someone would shoot up a business.
"How do you take people's lives?" Adams said. "That's shocking."
Fiamma Inc. is a more than 70-year-old family-run company that specializes in "lightweight easy to operate RV awnings with hand-built craftsmanship," according to the company's web site.
The company is headquartered in the Italian town of Cardano al Campo, northwest of Milan, according to the company's timeline on its site. Fiamma supplies awnings and related parts to RV dealers across the U.S. and Canada and also sells directly to customers.
The company registered in the state of Florida in 1991, according to Florida's corporate records.
When Todd Bluewater arrived at the company for work Monday morning, he found his business surrounded by sheriff's deputies and blocked off. He runs Cool Blue Customs, which has shared a building with Fiamma for the past three years.
"They're all kind-hearted people. ... I can't imagine who did this," Bluewater said of the employees at Fiamma.
He said Montanez-Crespo worked at the front desk. "She's the sweetest woman in the whole world."
Fiamma employs about eight people regularly, he said, and he knew all of them. "I'm shocked. ... They're all awesome," he said.
Gov. Rick Scott, in a statement, said he was briefed about the "tragic incident."
"I ask all Floridians to pray for the families impacted by this senseless act of violence. I will remain in contact with the Orlando law enforcement community throughout the day as more information is made available," his statement said.
This is the second instance of a disgruntled ex-employee who has been accused of returning to a former workplace to kill in Orlando this year.
Caswayne Williams, 23, who had recently been fired from the Wal-Mart on Lee Road west of I-4, is accused of stabbing his former supervisor, Davon Brown, in March.
A store manager told detectives that he had fired Williams "for making racial, sexual orientation and derogatory remarks," toward Brown, according to a report.
Monday's shooting comes as the anniversary of the Pulse nightclub massacre in Orlando is next week. It was the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history with 49 people killed by a gunman in the early morning hours of June 12, 2016.
