Ford dealership shooting suspect identified as employee who was just fired
San Francisco police identified the suspect who shot and killed two people at a Ford dealership near San Jose as Steven Leet, who had been fired less than two hours before the shooting Tuesday. Leet, 60, was found dead near the building from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said.
The victims have been identified as Brian Light, 59, and Xavier Souto, 38. Souto, who had a wife and two sons, was a San Jose resident who worked at the dealership since 2012 and was the parts manager, CBS San Francisco reports. Light, the parts and services director, had been working at the dealership since 2018.
Morgan Hill Police Chief David Swing said Souto and Light were supervisors of the suspect. Leet was fired Tuesday at 4:15 p.m., and Swing said he sat in his car for about 20 minutes before returning to his work station. He was escorted to a back office when he returned, and Swing said it appeared he waited around outside the office and eventually had a conversation with the victims.
Swing said Leet shot Souto at point-blank range, killing him instantly. Swing said it appeared Light tried to intervene with "physical force," but the suspect ultimately shot him twice.
"I know the actions of Mr. Light allowed the customers and employees of that business time to get out," Swing said. "Without that, he would have been right on top of a lot of people."
Swing said it appeared initially that Leet planned the shooting, but after speaking to co-workers, it appeared "he just carried weapons with him all the time." Leet had no criminal history and had 12 firearms registered to him. There were two firearms recovered at the scene.
Swing said most of the employees they spoke to described Leet as "quiet" that he kept to himself. He had worked at the Ford dealership for approximately eight years.
A SWAT team, armed with a search warrant, surrounded Leet's San Jose home in the pre-dawn hours Wednesday and used flash grenades and a battering ram to enter the residence, CBS San Francisco reports.
Doug Macglashan told CBS San Francisco he was hired by the dealership for the day from Southern California to train employees on new software, and he was nearly done before the day suddenly turned deadly.
Macglashan said the suspect wouldn't leave the premises after he was fired.
"About 10, 15 minutes later, gunshots," he said. "It's just scarier than hell. I'm not used to hearing gunshots, I'm not used to being around this type of violence. So it's just scary."