State to Hike Office Security After Killings

The state unemployment office where a gunman killed three people last week will reopen Monday, but only until state officials can find another building to relocate their still-terrified office workers.

Responding to employees’ concerns, state employment officials said Thursday that they plan to shut down the bullet-scarred office on C Street in Oxnard and relocate its 68 employees to another office building in the city.

“There are some employees who feel very strongly that they would prefer not to go back to work in that same office building,” said Anita Grandrath Gore, spokeswoman for the Employment Development Department in Sacramento. “We are looking at all of the options and the plan is we will move.”

The Oxnard office has been closed since unemployed computer engineer Alan Winterbourne went on his shooting rampage, also killing an Oxnard police detective. Winterbourne was later shot and killed by police outside another unemployment office in neighboring Ventura after a police chase.

Although the Oxnard office is scheduled to reopen Monday morning under the watch of armed security guards and state police, not all office employees are expected to return Monday, Gore said. Employees from other employment offices will be brought in to help ease the workload.

State Sen. Art Torres (D-Los Angeles) is pushing legislation to improve security at government offices.

“California is under siege and many of our employees are working in a war zone,” Torres said. “Had somebody in Sacramento been listening, this tragedy might never have happened.”