Congressman: NYC federal building gunman got "raw deal"
NEW YORK -- A man who gunned down a security guard at a federal building in Manhattan before killing himself was a whistleblower who had been given "a raw deal" by the agency that fired him, a New Jersey congressman who took up the man's case said Saturday.
Rep. Bill Pascrell said he did not know what made Kevin Downing, a military veteran who had once been employed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, open fire at the New York federal building on Friday.
"What made him snap?" Pascrell told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. "I don't know."
Downing had endured a string of misfortunes as his live-in fiancee died of breast cancer, his house was in foreclosure and he suffered health problems after a car accident, Pascrell said.
"None of this at all ever indicated to any of us that this was going to happen," Pascrell said.
Downing, 68, opened fire at the federal building that houses an immigration court, passport processing center and a regional office for the Department of Labor.
As he approached a metal detector, Downing shot FJC Security Services guard Idrissa Camara, police said.
Camara was supposed to leave work at 4 p.m. but had agreed to stay for an extra shift, his company said.
After shooting the senior security guard in the head at close range, Downing walked toward an elevator where he encountered another employee, and then shot himself in the head, said James O'Neill, a chief with the New York Police Department.
"We're in the very early stages of the investigation and are working to establish his motive for coming here, if he had an intended target beyond the security officer, and what the motive was behind the crime," O'Neill said.
There was no indication the shooting was terrorism-related, O'Neill said.
Dowling had been fired from a job at the New York City office of the Bureau of Labor Statistics in 1999 and appealed the firing, claiming he had been targeted because he was a whistleblower. Downing had complained about the Bureau of Labor Statistics closing its New York regional office, and alleged corruption and public waste.
An administrative judge dismissed the appeal, saying Downing did not reveal gross mismanagement or waste of funds.
A spokesman for the U.S. Department of Labor and the Bureau of Labor Statistics referred questions to the police on Saturday.
Pascrell said Downing contacted his office after the Democrat became Downing's congressman in a 2013 redistricting.
"We felt that this person had been given a raw deal to put it mildly and that there was no excuse for it and he had been treated very badly," Pascrell said.
Pascrell said he spoke with Downing on the phone and several members of his staff met with him over the last two years, most recently a few weeks ago.
"We have a case file on him. We spoke to him not that long ago," Pascrell told CBS radio station 1010 WINS' Derricke Dennis, CBS New York reported.
He said the caseworker described Downing as "always polite" and "always thankful."
"We sent a letter to perspective employers explaining that he lost his position, because of his whistleblowing," Pascrell told CBS radio station WCBS 880's Jim Smith.
In the letter, Pascrell wrote, "Had such legislation been in place when Mr. Downing was terminated, there is strong reason to believe it would have been found to have been inappropriate."
Federal agents swarmed Downing's home in Fort Lee, New Jersey, hours after the shooting, searching for anything that could help them understand his motive.
The FBI and the New York Police Department said they had no new information on the shooting Saturday.
Camara was armed but never had a chance to defend himself, the security company said.