A disgruntled former city employee shot the mayor, two city council members and two police officers in an incident that shattered the peace in Riverside, California, yesterday.
The politicial officials were preparing for their weekly meeting at about 8 a.m. in the city hall when Joseph Neale (40) entered a small room just outside the council chambers. He closed the door and took six people hostage.
Two police officers arrived and an exchange of gunfire ensued. The gunman was wounded .
The mayor, Mr Ron Loveridge, was grazed by a bullet but was otherwise unhurt. One council member, Mr Chuck Beaty, was shot in the shoulder and the jaw and was later listed in critical condition. Another council member, Ms Laura Pearson, was shot in the hip. Two officers were also injured. Mr Loveridge, visibly shaken, said: "It was surreal, like something you see in a movie or on television. You recognise that you might not leave this room. That your final testimony may be lying on a floor in a small room. I am glad to be alive."
Another 11 people were injured by flying glass during the incident.
City officials said Mr Neale had been a part-time employee of the city's parks and recreation department from 1989 to 1994. He recently filed a lawsuit against the city over his dismissal. Riverside's police chief, Mr Jerry Carroll, said Mr Neale had filed a wrongful termination suit after he was dismissed. A local radio station reported he was angered over discrimination against Asians.
Riverside is a suburban community about 60 miles east of Los Angeles. Its city hall and government buildings are architecturally attractive and set in an area planted with flowers.
Reluctant to spoil the small-town look, city planners have not installed metal detectors in the city hall or the courts, or hired armed security guards. Most government buildings in large US cities have metal detectors.
Mr Carroll told a news conference that none of the injuries sustained in the attack was life-threatening.
The incident was reminiscent of the shooting in the early 1980s of San Francisco's Mayor Moscone and supervisor Mr Harvey Milke by a former politician, Dan White.
Ms Diane Feinstein, now a US senator for California, was a witness to that incident and is now a strong voice in the US Congress for gun control.
The shootings of the Riverside officials, however, received little attention in Los Angeles yesterday morning. The bigger news was a high-speed chase taking place on a freeway by a pair of armed bank robbers.
News helicopters and a parade of six police vehicles were following a white pick-up truck as it headed toward San Diego at speeds of up to 100 m.p.h.