Suspect’s Troubles Revealed : Violence: Conflicting details about former General Dynamics employee emerge day after shooting. A labor representative was killed and a former boss was wounded.

A recently fired General Dynamics worker suspected of shooting a company labor relations representative to death and critically wounding a former supervisor had complained previously that he was unfairly singled out for harsh treatment, union officials said Saturday.

Although police and company officials provided little new information on the Friday afternoon shooting, a more detailed picture of the incident and the personalities involved emerged Saturday from interviews with union officials, co-workers and others.

Some described the alleged gunman, Robert Earl Mack, as a hard-working man who felt he was targeted for dismissal because he is black. Others said Mack was a hostile man with a history of being late and not showing up for work.

Mack, who was hired in 1968 and most recently worked on the advanced cruise missile assembly line, was being held at County Jail without bond on suspicion of murder and attempted murder.

Police said Mack shot his former supervisor, James English, 52, and labor relations representative Michael Konz, 25, in the head at close range after the three attended a grievance hearing related to Mack’s Jan. 15 firing.

Konz died an hour after the 2:30 p.m. shooting, but English has made a strong recovery after surgeons removed a bullet from the back of his head. Doctors say he escaped more serious injury because of a fluke in the bullet’s path. His condition was upgraded Saturday from critical to serious.

English has lost part of his vision and may suffer mental function problems that doctors will not be able to detect until they can ask him more complex questions, said Dr. Philip Shields, one of two UC San Diego Medical Center neurosurgeons who operated on him.

The shootings spread terror through the sprawling Convair Division plant, near Lindbergh Field. A union business agent who represented Mack at the grievance hearing said Saturday that Mack got up from a conference room table when the hearing recessed and followed Konz and English out of the room. Moments later, the three union representatives who had remained in the room heard two gunshots from the nearby courtyard.

“I put two and two together based on my worst fears,” said Paul Pechter, business representative for the International Assn. of Machinists, who remained in the conference room during the several minutes of chaos that ended when police cornered Mack in a nearby office and talked him into surrendering.

Mack did not appear unusually agitated at the hearing, which recessed for lack of time and was rescheduled to a later date, Pechter said.

“People are generally nervous and upset at these hearings,” he said. “I didn’t notice anything unusual.”

Machinists local President William Hickey said Mack had told him several times, most recently six months ago, that he felt his supervisors were unfairly targeting him for harsh discipline because he is black.

“He felt that he was a target,” Hickey said. “Because he was black he had the feeling that he was being singled out.”

Company officials say Mack was fired because of attendance problems. A former supervisor, who asked not to be identified, said Mack was aloof and frequently absent when he worked with him five years ago.

“Absolutely, he was a problem employee,” the supervisor said. “He wouldn’t show up. He’d get excited over little things. . . . I’m surprised he’s worked there for as long as he has.”

Although company officials would not comment on the case, they said that in general, direct supervisors such as English initiate dismissal proceedings.

Shortly before his firing, Mack attended a hearing to review his case, which was also attended by Konz, Pechter said.

There were no reports of confrontations between Konz and Mack. But one union official complained that Konz was regarded as being too aggressive and inexperienced in such cases, and that this could have been a factor in the incident.

“I thought he was inexperienced as to handling working people,” said the union official, who asked not to be identified.

English’s brother, Jerry, said that English’s co-workers told him English had tried to be lenient with Mack.

“Jim’s co-workers told me today that Jim would frequently (give) . . . this individual a break (when) he wouldn’t show up and so forth, that it wasn’t as though he was being brutal to this individual,” Jerry English said.

Times staff writer Leonard Bernstein contributed to this story.