Gunman Aimed to Kill More, S.D. Police Say : Shootings: Laid-off worker nursed his anger and carefully planned the attack, according to authorities.

Larry T. Hansel, the suspect in a methodical attack at a San Diego electronics company that left two top managers dead, told investigators Wednesday that he intended to kill as many as six company executives, San Diego police said.

Cooperative and chatty, Hansel confessed freely to the shootings and tipped police to another handgun as well as ammunition he had stashed at Elgar Corp. in case he needed it.

Laid off by the Miramar company in March, Hansel grimly nursed his anger and carefully planned the attack, police said, during which he set several small fires with homemade bombs. Some of the people he stalked were in the building and hid from him.

Less than three hours after the Tuesday afternoon shooting, Hansel surrendered at a Riverside County sheriff’s substation in Palm Desert. At 4 a.m. Wednesday, authorities brought Hansel to San Diego, where he is in custody on suspicion of a double homicide. He is scheduled to be arraigned today.

“He confessed to San Diego police. He was talkative and answered all their questions. He seemed composed,” Lt. Dan Berglund said. “He seemed very lucid.”

For the second straight day, company officials criticized police, saying it took them too long to arrive and they then delayed entering the building. Department administrators launched an investigation into how quickly police arrived and determined late Wednesday that the response time was adequate.

Police said earlier Wednesday that they recovered a semiautomatic pistol, a rifle, a pellet rifle and a batch of small, homemade explosive devices from the truck Hansel drove to Palm Desert. They also found the shotgun believed to have been used in the attack and the mountain bike Hansel reportedly used to flee the Elgar building.

Hansel showed no remorse and told police he had targeted those in management whom he felt were responsible for his losing his job, Berglund said. Hansel’s hit list included Tom Erickson, the personnel manager who laid him off; Bob Azima, the floor supervisor; and John Jones, vice president and general manager, according to police and company officials. Police declined to release the names of the other intended victims.

Amid the smoke and fire, Azima fled the building, and Erickson hid beneath a desk. Twice, Erickson was only a few feet from the gunman who was stalking him.

Jones, 48, died of shotgun wounds at the scene. Michael Krowitz, 46, a regional sales manager, died in surgery at Scripps Memorial Hospital. When Krowitz heard the gunfire, he rushed toward Jones’ office, apparently to check on his colleague, witnesses said. Hansel allegedly first shot Jones, then turned his 12-gauge shot gun on Krowitz, who was not on Hansel’s list, police said.

“Hansel had his targets in mind, and he only wanted to harm them. I don’t think he meant to injure anyone but the men he was after,” said Roxann Merlini, a sales coordinator, who had been in Krowitz’s office at the time of the shooting and hid beneath a desk.

Hansel, 41, was hired as an electronics technician in 1988. In March, he was laid off as the company attempted to streamline its operations. The father of a 15-year-old boy and 8-year-old girl, he has been unemployed during the intervening months, police said. He lived in a middle-class Encanto neighborhood with his children and his wife, Maria Luisa Hansel, who works in financial aid administration at San Diego State University. Mrs. Hansel declined to comment Wednesday.

Police said Hansel, a gun fanatic, has five handguns registered in his name. Considered an eccentric man who spouted odd religious doctrines, he recently told a neighbor that the book of Ezekiel meant “E-Z kill.”

In 1984, Hansel was a delegate candidate for ultra-rightist Lyndon LaRouche in the presidential race. He received less than 1% of the vote, finishing near the bottom of about 3 dozen candidates, according to the San Diego County registrar of voters office.

Police said Hansel entered the Elgar building earlier in the day Tuesday, before the shooting. He apparently wanted to determine if his intended targets were at work, Berglund said.

Hansel returned shortly after 2 p.m., having parked his blue truck a short distance from the building. He left his black mountain bike 100 yards from the rear of the building in a parking lot.

Police believe that Hansel planted three Molotov cocktails outside the building, another radio-controlled bomb outside and two radio-controlled bombs inside. The two inside exploded, shooting flames 15 feet into the air and setting off the fire alarm at 2:15 p.m.

Many of those inside thought at first that there was only a fire. But employees spotted Hansel, striding purposefully through the corridors with a shotgun and a bandoleer of ammunition slung across his chest. Word quickly spread that a gunman roamed the halls.

When Hansel fled, police said, there were two bodies sprawled in a second-floor reception area: those of Jones and Krowitz.

Julie King, Krowitz’s daughter, said her father’s death was senseless.

“He had nothing to do with that man,” she said. “He was not in charge of hiring and firing. He was just in the way. He would have given that man the last dollar in his pocket if that’s what he’d have wanted.”

Krowitz, a former East Coast policeman, enjoyed tinkering with cars and had restored a pickup truck. He was a boating enthusiast, and enjoyed gardening and working around the house.

“He was just a real likable guy,” said Bill Schworer, a neighbor.

The Elgar offices were closed Wednesday, and officials planned an employee breakfast meeting Thursday, when counselors are expected to help workers deal with the trauma.

At a Wednesday news conference, company President Bill Humphreys reiterated his concern that police arrived at the scene too late.

But police countered that the first call came in on 911 at 2:24 and that two units were sent to the address three minutes later. At 2:30, three units met half a block away to confer about strategy, and went to the building at 2:34, police said.

Officers saw people running out of the building and entered at 2:38.

“We had to take the volatility of the situation into account,” City Manager Jack McGrory said in trying to explain the time delay. “People are running around frantically, and you’ve got to ascertain whether the guy’s still in the building and whether he has hostages.”

But Humphreys said that a call to 911 was made by a supervisor at about 2:20 p.m., and that, after getting out onto the roof and seeing the police car, he called police again 20 minutes later.

“I told the 911 operator, ‘You log when these calls were made,’ ” he said. “I want you to mark when these calls were made.”

It remains unclear whether Hansel was still in the building when police arrived.

McGrory said the investigation is continuing, but he is satisfied with the response time.

Assistant Police Chief Norm Stamper said his office is conducting a full review of the situation “so we can find out what happened, from A to Z.”

A company spokeswoman said Elgar has a security guard only at night and did not think to beef up protection just because Hansel had been to the company earlier in the day to find out who was in the building.

“We have people sign in when they come in and sign out when they leave,” Catherine Wambach said. “That’s no more or no less than what they have at any other company around here.”

Wambach said the company was considering a memorial fund for its slain managers. Another fund might be set up for Hansel’s family as well.

Times staff writers H. G. Reza and Amy Wallace contributed to this story.