Gunman shoots 3 at office complex in Arizona; 1 extremely critical, all life-threatening

PHOENIX – Police surrounded the home of a suspected gunman Wednesday after he opened fire at an office building in Arizona’s largest city and wounded three people, one of them critically.

Authorities believe there was only one shooter and don’t think it was a random act.

Special weapons and tactics teams and two armoured vehicles surrounded a Phoenix home about 7 miles (11 kilometres) from Wednesday morning’s shooting scene but said the suspect wasn’t there.

America’s latest public shooting came on the same day Congress took up the issue of gun control for the first time since the Connecticut school shooting in December left 20 young children dead and changed the national conversation on guns.

Former Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords who was shot in the head during a 2011 shooting rampage in Tucson that left 6 people dead appeared in Washington to testify in favour of stricter gun controls.

Police didn’t immediately release the name of the possible suspect or a motive for the shooting, which left two other victims with non-life threatening injuries.

They also wouldn’t identify the three people wounded.

The gunfire prompted terrified workers throughout the complex to lock the doors to their offices and hide far from the windows. Elite police officers searched the building.

“Everyone was just scared, honestly, just scared,” said Navika Sood, assistant director of nursing at First at Home Health Services who along with her co-workers locked the entrances to their office.

Sood said police evacuated the office about 30 minutes after she first heard the popping noises.

At about 10:30 a.m. local time, the gunman arrived at the office building and got into a dispute with someone, a conflict that escalated to the point where he drew a gun and shot three people, Thompson said.

Vannessa Brogan, who works in sales support at an insurance business in the three-story complex, said she heard a loud bang that she thought at first was from somebody working in or near the building.

She said others at the business thought they heard multiple loud noises. She said people locked themselves in offices until authorities evacuated the complex that houses insurance, medical and law offices.

Becky Neher, who works for a title company in the building, said the two gunshots she heard sounded like two pieces of metal banging against each other.

Watching from her second-story office, she saw people leaving the building.

“Someone yelled, ‘We have a shooter,’” she said. She saw two victims lying on the ground outside the back side of the building. She said health care workers who have offices in the complex came out to help.

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Associated Press Writers Paul Davenport, Felicia Fonseca and Terry Tang contributed to this report.