Two Women Fatally Shot Inside Business : Crime: Police say the suspect, the brother-in-law of one victim, had threatened family members.

Two women, including the owner of a small embroidery business, were shot to death Thursday, and police mounted a search for the owner’s brother-in-law, who allegedly is obsessed with guns and had repeatedly threatened to harm family members.

Fountain Valley police identified the suspected killer as Douglas Stanley, 57, of Westminster.

Employees said Stanley started firing a gun inside Design It, a custom embroidery business owned by his sister-in-law, Joyce Stanley, and his brother, Charles Stanley. They said one of the dead women was Joyce Stanley, 52, and the other was Terry Vasquez, 41, one of her employees.

Police think that Stanley, who owns at least two firearms and has been living with his brother and sister-in-law, escaped in a 1992 silver Buick Le Sabre (California license 2ZTR347) owned by his sister-in-law. His brother, Charles, called police at 11:42 a.m. when he returned to his business and found a woman staggering outside the front entrance, apparently shot.

“The suspect has a history of making threats against family members, and today he decided to carry out those threats,” Police Sgt. Darryl Nance said.

Police said the suspect was a “survivalist type” who has no criminal record. Two rifles were found at the scene of the shooting.

“Our first question was motive, and one of the family members told us that he had personal problems. He was hostile and angry with other family members and had been making threats of bodily harm to a number of them,” Nance said. “He is obviously dangerous, armed and angry.”

One employee, Scott Pham, 26, who was at lunch when the shootings occurred, said Douglas Stanley had talked about getting “lots of guns” and once brought a handgun to the business and poked it in Pham’s ribs as a joke.

Pham said Douglas Stanley recently showed him a .38-caliber revolver he kept under the seat of his car and bragged about trying to get a license to purchase and sell firearms wholesale so he could get them cheaper.

“He’d been talking about (guns) all the time,” Pham said. “He said if he wanted to shoot somebody he could and nobody would catch him.”

Pham said he did not take Douglas Stanley’s stories about guns seriously. One day Pham showed Stanley a newspaper story about a shooting, and Stanley remarked: “When I do it, I’ll do the job right.”

Neighbors of the Stanleys in Westminster described Douglas Stanley as argumentative, moody and a braggart, but said they never saw weapons.

Four employees were in the back area of the business, which embroiders insignia onto uniforms, when the two women, working in the front office, were shot multiple times, police said.

Pham said Charles and Joyce Stanley were planning to meet with their employees that afternoon to discuss details of shutting down the business and moving east.

Neighbors of the Stanleys said the family was planning to move to Arkansas because of the cost of doing business in California. A “For Sale” sign was on their front lawn.

Pham said the two Stanley brothers frequently argued, although he never saw arguments between Douglas Stanley and his sister-in-law.

Douglas Stanley was at the business almost every morning, Pham said, doing various duties, such as helping with the machines or with the patches.

Douglas Stanley, who is single, had heart bypass surgery about a year ago when he moved to Orange County from Wyoming.

“He worked at the business, but he could never do anything right,” said Donna Ashley, owner of a business next door to Design It. “Joyce told me they should let him go, but he’d have nowhere else to go.”

Stanley was described by police as 5 feet, 11 inches tall, 165 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes. They thought he was headed either toward the family home in Westminster or to Mexico, where he has friends. Police had surrounded his Westminster address.

Neighbor Helen Piech said the Stanleys were quiet and very hard-working, often putting in 12-hour days at the shop.