Updated 7/13, 11:30 a.m.
Police have identified the shooter as 37-year-old Robert Reza and said his primary target was his former girlfriend, who is in critical condition at the University of New Mexico Hospital. Reza initially confronted her outside the building, police said. Reza killed himself inside the Emcore building as Albuquerque police closed in. Neighbors told KOB.com that Reza and his former girlfriend split up a year ago and were engaged in a custody battle over their twin 5-year-old sons.
"The safety and well-being of Emcore employees is paramount during this terrible tragedy. Emcore representatives are working with federal and local public safety officials to ensure our employees are taken care of in this time of crisis. Our employees come first, and future decisions will be made with their best interest in mind," Emcore said in a statement released Tuesday. The company also set up an emergency hotline for workers.
Posted 7/12, 5:30 p.m.:
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M., July 12, 2010 — A former employee shot and killed two people at a fiber optics manufacturer Monday in Albuquerque before turning the gun on himself, the Associated Press is reporting.
Previously, Albuquerque Police Chief Ray Schultz had mistakenly said six people were dead. He told reporters at a news conference later that responding officers had seen people on the ground and believed they were dead, but didn't stop to check as they were searching first for the gunman. It was later determined that some of those shot and believed killed had survived.
As of 5 p.m. Monday, there was still confusion as to the total number of victims, with some media outlets reporting as many as eight wounded and the Associated Press saying there were four wounded. The shooter, believed to be a former Emcore employee, still had not been identified as of 5 p.m.
According to a news posting at 3 p.m. ET on the CNN Web site, the news network said officers were called to Emcore Corp. via a 911 call at 9:26 a.m. (11:26 a.m. ET) that multiple shots had been fired. Upon entering the building three minutes later, the officers found 10 people shot — four were dead, including the man believed to be the shooter. The gunman is believed to have shot himself. Two other victims subsequently died from their gunshot wounds, while two were in stable condition and two others were still receiving emergency medical attention, police told CNN.
Albuquerque Police Chief Ray Schultz was quoted as saying police believed the shooting to be "a domestic-violence workplace situation," with one of the victims believed to be the wife or girlfriend of the shooter.
Emcore makes compound semiconductor-based components, subsystems and systems for the fiber optics and solar power markets. Some 85 employees were inside the building when the shooting occurred.
For more information, visit: www.cnn.com or www.ap.org