One killed, 5 injured in US Orlando shooting
- Source: Global Times
- [13:17 November 10 2009]
- Comments
A police car parks outside the Gateway Center building where a shooting spree took place in downtown Orlando, Florida, the US, Nov. 6, 2009. A gunman on Friday opened fire inside the Gateway Center building, killing at least one person and wounding at least five others. (Xinhua photo)
Swat teams and ambulances descended on the 16-story building after gunshots were fired at 11:30 am (1630 GMT) in Reynolds Smith & Hill, a transportation engineering consulting firm in the building.
Gateway Center is a 16-story office building that was constructed 10 years ago.
It was the second US mass shooting incident in past two days after a medical doctor opened fire in the Fort Hood military base in Texas, leaving 13 dead and 30 wounded.
The building, which has been fully evacuated, remains cardoned off and the entrance closed. A helicopter is hovering above the building and much of the traffic around it has been resumed with a dozen of emergency vehicles stationing beside.
Just opposite the high-rise at the Sheraton Orlando downtown Hotel, guest services staff Carlos Soto said that he saw two guys run out of the building and one of them with pants torn open when the shooting took place. They dialed 911 and the hotel was locked down immediately after as a security precaution.
Another hotel staff, the 29-year-old William, who has been working at the hotel for five years as valet parking supervisor, said he saw two males aged about 50 were taken out of the building soon after the gun shots were heard, one in serious condition with head bleeding and the other with right eye closed.
He said he did not think that the public security in Orland, a tourist city with Disney World, is poor and the city's tourism industry will not be affected. "The tourists won't panic because of the incident," he said.
