6 Executives Were on Hit List, Suspect Tells Police : Rampage: The man held in the slaying of two managers at a San Diego firm confessed freely, officers report.

Larry T. Hansel, the suspect in a methodical attack at a San Diego electronics firm Tuesday 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 told authorities about another handgun and ammunition he had hidden at Elgar Corp. in case he needed them, police said.

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

Less than three hours after the Tuesday afternoon shootings, Hansel surrendered at a Riverside County sheriff’s substation in Palm Desert. At 4 a.m. Wednesday, authorities returned Hansel to San Diego, where he was booked on suspicion of murder.

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

Police recovered a semiautomatic pistol, a rifle, shotgun and pellet rifle from the truck that Hansel drove to Palm Desert. Police believe the shotgun is the one used in Tuesday’s slayings.

Also found in the truck was the mountain bicycle that Hansel allegedly used to flee from the building and a batch of small homemade explosives.

Hansel showed no remorse and told police that he had targeted those in management whom he blamed for being laid off, Berglund said.

Hansel’s hit list included Tom Erickson, the personnel manager who laid Hansel off from his job as an electronics technician; 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 from the building and Erickson hid beneath a desk. Twice, Erickson was only a few feet away from the gunman who was stalking him.

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

“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 by the firm 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 an 8-year-old girl, he has been unemployed during the intervening months, police said. His wife, Maria Luisa, declined to comment.

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

According to police and witness accounts, Hansel’s moves on Tuesday appear to have been carefully planned.

Hansel had gone to the building hours before the shootings and asked the whereabouts of specific people, police said.

A company spokeswoman said Elgar has a security guard only at night and did not think to beef up protection just because of Hansel’s first visit.

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

When Hansel returned to the building about 2 p.m., he parked his blue truck a short distance away and left his mountain bike 100 yards from the rear of the building.

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 first thought there was only a fire. But employees saw Hansel, striding purposefully through the corridors with a shotgun and a bandoleer of ammunition slung around his chest. Employees were stricken with a paralyzing fear that the “Rambo-like” Hansel might be around the next corner.

But most frightening, those who encountered him said, was the image of Hansel himself--in part because he seemed so at peace with his violent purpose. After entering the building through a rear entrance, he conducted a controlled search, inquiring about the whereabouts of certain managers and then determinedly moving on.

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