The Oxnard Rampage : Silence and Then the Gunfire : Shooting scene: Witnesses say the expressionless man began firing without warning and then strolled out without saying a word.

There was complete silence. No warning at all. And then, moments later, the longhaired gunman began spraying bullets at employees at the state unemployment office in downtown Oxnard.

“He didn’t say a word, he just started shooting,” said Elizabeth Smith, a 51-year-old Thousand Oaks nurse who was standing several feet from the gunman. “He had no expression, nothing. There was total silence, and just gunshots.”

Witnesses to the shooting rampage that erupted at the Oxnard office of the Employment Development Department shortly before noon Thursday said a bearded man in a sport coat and slacks walked into the employee area and started firing without warning.

The suspect, identified by authorities as 33-year-old Alan Winterbourne of Ventura, strolled out without a word when he finished firing, witnesses said.

“He looked calm, very calm,” said Irene Martinez, a 56-year-old unemployed packer who was in the building at the time. “He was putting the gun in his waistband as he was leaving.”

Martinez said everyone in the building hit the floor when the first shots rang out. Except for the intermittent sound of gunfire, it was eerily quiet as the gunman moved through the building, taking aim at employees, seemingly at random.

“Everyone was so still,” she said.

Two employees and a man who was visiting the office were killed in the spree. The gunman also fatally shot an Oxnard police officer during a shootout after a high-speed chase through Oxnard and Ventura. He was later shot to death by police at the unemployment office in Ventura.

In the aftermath of the shootings, the scene at the Oxnard unemployment office was anything but quiet.

Fire engines, police cars and ambulances raced to the scene of the rampage, a nondescript, one-story structure at C Street and Citrus Grove Lane. Helicopters circled overhead. Dozens of police officers had their hands full restraining a crowd of about 200 onlookers while reporters and camera crews swarmed around the building.

Throughout the afternoon, anxious relatives and friends of employees arrived to get news. As police questioned workers inside the building, family members peered into windows on hands and knees, hoping to see for themselves that a relative was unharmed.

When one woman was notified that a relative had been killed, she broke into loud sobs and the clamoring crowd fell still.

Police blocked off the building as investigators marched in and out. Reporters and onlookers strained to get a look inside the entrance where shotgun shells could be seen on the floor.

The chaotic scene also attracted scores of curious onlookers from the post office across the street and an adjacent shopping center.

Some came because they had planned to file unemployment claims that day. Johnetta Johnson, who rode her bike from Port Hueneme, was disappointed to find the office closed.

“Will it be open tomorrow?” she asked an officer who was standing by the sealed-off building.

“I don’t know. It depends on how long it takes to secure the crime scene,” he answered.

“I guess I’ll have to call ahead tomorrow,” Johnson said as she rode off.

Alysa Diaz, 19, of Oxnard was waiting outside the office Thursday for her father, Andy, who works in the building.

“It’s kind of scary,” Diaz said. “I didn’t think it was dangerous (to work there) before today. You always think stuff like that happens only at the post office.”

Other onlookers were outraged and distraught about the shootings.

An unemployed landscaper who would only describe himself as John angered relatives of employees by saying he was not surprised the shootings had occurred.

“They don’t try to help you, they laugh at you,” he said.

Workers at the unemployment office said there is no security at the building. Some said they had worried such an occurrence would erupt one day because of threats and incidents at other unemployment offices.

In 1986, a disgruntled worker at a state unemployment office in Garden Grove fatally shot his supervisor before turning the gun on himself.

In the Oxnard incident Thursday, witnesses said the gunman appeared to be aiming specifically at workers, and not clients. At least 35 to 40 employees and several dozen members of the public, including children, were inside the building when the shooting began, authorities said.

Carla Mata, a clerk who works in the Oxnard unemployment office, speculated the gunman was disgruntled because unemployment checks were delayed this week by the Thanksgiving holiday.

Mata said she was scheduled to start work in the afternoon, so did not witness the shootings.

The Oxnard office only processes claims, and does not distribute unemployment checks, Mata said. But many clients get confused and often blame the workers if their checks are late, she said.

Winterbourne, a computer systems engineer, was unemployed for seven years. Officials said Winterbourne had applied for job referrals a few months ago and was not receiving any unemployment benefits.