Neighbors Recall Terror, Heroism at Shooting Site : Violence: Suspect who opened fire at apartment complex, killing two and wounding five, had been regarded by some as a ‘crazy man.’ Police, firefighters--and children-- are credited with saving lives.

Tony Mendez, 9, woke up before dawn Sunday, sweating and screaming, his mother said, fearing that the “bad man” was still alive and saving one more bullet just for him.

“It was around five in the morning,” said a bleary-eyed Cynthia Mendez, 36, Tony’s mother. “He couldn’t get to sleep until 12:30 and then he wakes up, thinking the bad man is coming after him. The police had to come over and reassure Tony that the bad man is dead.”

The “bad man” was Gordon H. Neumann, 62, who police say killed two people--one a 9-year-old girl--and wounded five others, Tony among them, in a shooting rampage Saturday from his apartment window that left this city east of San Diego in shock.

Neumann’s deadly outburst followed less than three weeks ago the killing of four people who were gunned down at an El Cajon health club by James M. Buquet, 19, who then took his own life.

Within minutes of firing numerous rounds from a high-powered rifle and riddling surrounding units in a small complex with gaping bullet holes, Neumann set fire to his second-floor apartment. He was described as an angry recluse who had lived alone for years.

Police were still unsure Sunday whether he had died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound or from the flames that spread to nine other units.

Neumann’s victims included Jessica Ruehl, 9, who was shot repeatedly and died at Children’s Hospital of San Diego shortly after 4 p.m. Saturday, and Virginia Eash, 46, who died in the apartment complex’s parking lot moments after shots rang out about 3 p.m.

Police say Eash suffered multiple gunshot wounds to her upper body, including one to the head.

Neumann’s charred remains were found in his apartment, said a spokesman for the San Diego County Medical Examiner. But police and dozens of eyewitnesses had identified Neumann as the gunman before the fire was set.

The injured and their conditions Sunday were Daniel Imbimbo, 2, who suffered a gunshot wound to the head and whose condition was upgraded from critical to serious; Alana Nguyen, 12, who was in serious condition with a back wound; Mary Gaugh, 33, who was in fair condition with a gunshot wound to the hip but whose daughter, Jessica, died in the rampage; Ha Nguyen, 14, (no relation to Alana), who was treated and released with a fragment wound in her arm, and Tony Mendez, who suffered shrapnel wounds to the face and chest and who was treated and released.

On Sunday, police credited Tony with saving the life of Angela Imbimbo, 5, the sister of Daniel Imbimbo. Tony shielded the girl’s body with his own, investigators said, but in so doing, he took ricocheting fragments and narrowly escaped death.

Police say Tony’s sister, Jennifer Mendez, 13, who was not injured, picked up an unconscious Daniel Imbimbo and carried him to paramedics, while an estimated 20 shots were being fired.

Found in Neumann’s apartment were a large-caliber handgun and a high-powered rifle that police say might have been a semiautomatic weapon. Forensic analyses of the guns will not be completed for some time because both were badly damaged in the fire, El Cajon police spokesman Bill McClurg said.

McClurg said the size of the bullet holes in walls indicated that all the gunfire may have come from the rifle. Police say Neumann, who appears to have left no surviving family members, had lived in the Key Largo complex for 23 years.

On Sunday, neighbors recalled a scene of stark terror, telling of firefighters who raced up ladders to second-floor windows to flee with children--one in each arm--as the inferno Neumann had set burned on.

With shots still being fired, an unidentified El Cajon policeman ran from the scene, cradling a boy in one arm and in the other a wide-eyed girl wearing a blue dress and holding an ice cream cone that had not begun to melt.

Within 30 feet of Neumann’s burned-out apartment, miniature bicycles, toy trucks and Frisbees lay scattered on the ground Sunday morning, reminders of the moment when dozens of children turned and ran, crying and screaming.

Cardboard skeletons, fake spider webs and paper goblins hung from doors and windows as symbols of a trick-or-treat Sunday ruined by the tragedy.

Victor Higuera, 18, said he was pulling out of his driveway when the rampage began. He said he watched his 9-year-old neighbor, Jessica, fall to the ground from a gunshot wound. He and Jose Morales, 16, said that Neumann had threatened children in the complex on Friday, telling them he would kill them if they failed to leave him alone.

Neighbors described Neumann as a tall, extraordinarily pale man who was stooped--”a hunchback,” Higuera said--and who was known for being hostile to other residents, especially children, who called him Igor and who liked to heckle him. Police say children often rang his doorbell and ran away giggling.

But others said he was mean without provocation and was widely regarded as the neighborhood “crazy man.”

“One time, he was walking with his groceries,” said Brandon Venn, 16, who lives in the complex. “He’d get tired and stop for a while. We asked him if he wanted us to carry his groceries for him. He yelled out, ‘No! Get away from me!’ and then he threatened us with his cane.”

Tenant Debbie Carlin, 42, said Neumann was a “very scary looking man and a very scary man. He never liked little children.”

“He was one of the meanest men I ever met,” said Carol Cordova, 13. “He hated kids.”

Andre Humes, 15, whose friend Jessica died, said that Neumann reminded him of Ebenezer Scrooge in Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.”

Residents said Neumann lived with his mother and brother in a nearby unit until they died a few years apart in the 1980s--deaths police confirmed, noting that neither died under mysterious circumstances.

“I think I’ll be all right,” a shaken Tony Mendez said Sunday. “But you’ll never believe how scary it was. I didn’t know anything like that could happen to a kid.”