Troy, Mich. – A man who was fired last week from an accounting firm in suburban Detroit walked into his former office with a loaded shotgun Monday and shot three people, killing one, before fleeing and leading police officers on a high- speed chase, authorities said.
The suspect, identified as Anthony LaCalamita, entered Gordon Advisors about 10 a.m. and opened fire, police said.
Madeline Kafoury, 63, died at the scene, authorities said. Two men, ages 47 and 48, were wounded, police said. The men were reportedly partners at the firm.
A spokeswoman for Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak said the injured men’s families had requested privacy and that the hospital was not releasing any information about their condition.
LaCalamita, 38, who was still listed on the firm’s website as a member of its “professional staff,” had been terminated last week, police said. Troy Police Chief Charles Craft said witnesses told police that LaCalamita had walked into the building and into the firm’s unlocked suite as though he were concealing something.
“We heard pop, pop, pop,” smelled gunpowder and heard co-workers yelling, said Jean Larson, 48, a staff accountant for G&C, a subsidiary of Gordon Advisors. “I heard one employee screaming, ‘He’s got a gun. He’s got a gun.’ … It was a panic.”
She hid with two female co- workers in an office, barricading the locked door with chairs, turning off the lights and silencing their cellphones.
Beneath a desk, the three curled up and kept quiet.
“I was just so scared,” Larson said. “I just kept thinking, ‘This can’t be happening.”‘
LaCalamita fled in his car before officers arrived, but witnesses took note of the license plate number, police said. About two hours later, the car was spotted near Flint, 50 miles to the north.
Police chased LaCalamita for about 30 miles at speeds of up to 120 mph on Interstate 75 before apprehending him near Bay City.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
