Man Kills 3 Bosses of His Ex-Firm, Then Shoots Self

A man wearing a business suit shot at his former bosses in an office building cafeteria during lunchtime Wednesday, killing three people and wounding two others, police said.

“This is what you all get for firing me,” he reportedly shouted.

The suspect, Paul Calden, 33, later was found dead on a Frisbee golf course in a Clearwater park about 15 miles away. Police said that he shot himself.

Calden had been let go eight months ago from Fireman’s Fund Insurance Co.’s local office, Tampa police spokesman Steve Cole said. He did not know how long Calden had worked there.

Calden had visited a friend in the building several hours before the shooting, and appeared calm then, police Maj. Ken Taylor said.

He returned shortly before 1 p.m., went to the cafeteria, bought a soft drink and set it down. Then he walked over to a table where five people were seated, pulled a gun from beneath his suit jacket and opened fire, Taylor added.

Cole said all of the people shot were managers, supervisors or executives of Fireman’s Fund. A spokesman for the company would not immediately confirm that.

“It was not a matter of him going into the cafeteria and just spraying in every direction,” Cole said.

At least two other people sitting with the victims escaped injury but were splattered with blood, Taylor said. Police said that there were 30 witnesses.

Abraham Reid, whose wife was in the cafeteria when the shooting began, said that she called him afterward and quoted the gunman as saying: “This is what you all get for firing me.”

Later, Sarah Reid, 33, said that the man was an arm’s length from her when the shooting started in the small first-floor cafe.

“It’s totally unbelievable. I just thank God he spared my life,” she said. She said he “just shot all these people around this one table.”

“It sounded like a firecracker and I thought it was a joke. I just looked up and all of a sudden I saw the man just shooting. Then everybody started screaming and we all just got up and knocked over the table and tried to run,” she said.

Two men died at the scene; another died en route to the hospital, Cole said. Two women were hospitalized in serious condition.

Calder, who dropped a 9-millimeter handgun in the cafeteria, had been wearing a gray business suit, police said.

John Kozero, spokesman at Fireman’s Fund headquarters in Novato, Calif., would not comment on the shooting.