Police Wound Shooting Rampage Suspect

An irate deliveryman strolled into a Santa Monica shipping office at daybreak Monday, shouted profanities and fired at least four bullets as his terrified co-workers scrambled for the door, witnesses and police said.

“He was just shooting, saying bad words, you know, saying ‘What’s up?’ and ‘Run,’ ” said fellow driver Juan Sagrero, hunched on a curbside later in the morning. “I was like, ‘He’s not going to shoot me.’ ”

In the end, the alleged gunman was the only person to be shot. Police cornered 34-year-old Ronald Brown a few blocks north of the warehouse. When Brown refused to drop his .357 magnum, police shot him in the left thigh.

“He wouldn’t drop the gun,” Santa Monica Police Capt. Gary Gallinot said. “So we hit him in the leg and he went down.”

Police said Brown had worked more than two years as a contract driver at Airborne Express at Nebraska and Centinela avenues in northeast Santa Monica. He was known as a quiet, affable man.

“Apparently he was a good guy,” Gallinot said. “They had no indication there was a problem.”

About 20 workers were loading packages into trucks when Brown walked through the loading dock, brandishing a silver handgun. It was a few minutes after 7 a.m. The two-story brick shipping office hadn’t opened for business.

“Imagine: He just comes in shooting in the air,” Sagrero said. “We just went running everywhere.”

As bullets clanged into the ceiling and crashed through a window, panicked workers shattered the glass front door and spilled onto the busy industrial strip.

“He just started openly, randomly firing his weapon,” Gallinot said.

As workers ran for cover, the suspect loped along behind. Police caught up, and hollered after the fleeing man. The alleged gunman stopped and turned around, but kept gripping his gun, police said. Police fired two bullets; Brown was hit once and collapsed.

Charged with attempted murder, Brown was being held on $500,000 bond in the hospital ward of Los Angeles County Jail.

Hours after the outburst, the gun still lay in the street and the shipping office remained deserted. More than a dozen workers milled about on the sidewalk behind police ropes, huddled in their company jackets and running shoes.

“I think maybe he just wanted to make a scene. He was just shooting in the air,” Sagrero said. “I don’t understand what happened to him.”