Palo Alto City Worker Wounds 2 Supervisors, Then Kills Self

A city electrician described as distraught over his job shot and wounded two supervisors at a morning meeting Friday and then killed himself, police said.

At 7 a.m., a man identified by police as Vladimar (Walter) Kozubov, 49, walked into the Palo Alto utilities control center, where fellow workers were seated at a table for their morning meeting, and immediately shot two of the men with a small-caliber handgun.

“He just walked in and started shooting,” then turned the gun on himself, police spokeswoman Lacey Burt said.

The victims were identified as Charles Richard Monzingo, 44, listed in critical condition, and Thomas Edward Darden, 35, reported stable. Both were at Stanford University Hospital.

Paramedics pronounced Kozubov dead at the scene.

Friday was Kozubov’s ninth anniversary as a city worker. Co-workers said he recently returned from a leave of absence from his job and seemed distraught over job-related situations.

Bob Britton, field representative for the Service Employees International Union that represents the electrical workers, said he had been trying to help Kozubov work things out.

“He had a temper,” Britton said. “I was trying to get him to work on his temper, trying to get him to use the union to deal with his problems.”

City electrical assistant Ken Schwab said Kozubov had been back to work about a month, “but he still seemed agitated about something.”

Debra D’Alessandro, an electrical department employee, said, “He has threatened that he would come out and shoot up the place.”