Tenant’s son kills 2, self

A man opened fire on workers coming to inspect the apartment his mother had been ordered to leave, killing two and wounding three before committing suicide, authorities said Thursday.

William T. Smith opened the door Wednesday afternoon at the Thalia Gardens complex and began shooting with an AK-47 assault rifle and a Mac 10 9mm semiautomatic handgun, police spokeswoman Margie Long said.

Smith, 52, fatally shot 63-year-old maintenance technician Sam Shestul inside the two-story apartment building, Long said. The other workers ran outside, but Smith followed them, still shooting, she said.

Officers arrived to find maintenance technician Rebecca Diane Hughes, 32, dead and three people injured in the parking lot. Most of the victims were shot multiple times, Long said.

Apartment managers had told Smith’s mother her lease was not being renewed and gave her until the end of the month to leave, said Michael R. Devine, vice president of S.L. Nusbaum Realty Co., which manages the complex. He would not give the reason or the woman’s name but said she had told managers she had already moved out.

It was unclear whether Smith had been living in the apartment, but Devine said workers entering the apartment for a routine inspection did not know he was there.

“This was not an eviction,” Devine said, correcting earlier statements by police. “This was a normal, routine operation. . . . It was a normal day and then something went wrong.”

Long said two of the injured were maintenance technicians, and one was a community manager at the complex. One person was in critical condition Thursday evening, and the others were listed as stable, police spokesman Adam Bernstein said.