Minneapolis shooter had been fired, police say

MINNEAPOLIS — A man who burst into a sign-making business in Minneapolis, fatally shooting the owner and four others before turning the gun on himself, had been fired from the company earlier in the day, police said Friday.

Minneapolis Police Chief Tim Dolan identified the shooter, who injured at least three others in the Thursday afternoon attack, as Andrew J. Engeldinger, 36. A fourth victim died Friday after being hospitalized in critical condition.

Engeldinger had been fired from his job at Accent Signage Systems earlier Thursday, Dolan said. He came back about 4:25 p.m., parked his car, walked into the loading dock area and immediately started shooting people. But it also appeared he may have spared some of his former colleagues.

PHOTOS: Minneapolis shooting
“It’s clear he did walk by some people — very clear,” Dolan said.

Investigators who searched a house Thursday night where Engeldinger lived in south Minneapolis found another gun and packaging for 10,000 rounds of ammunition.

“He’s obviously been practicing in how to use that gun,” Dolan said.

Among those killed were Reuven Rahamim, 61, the owner of Accent Signage Systems Inc. in Bryn Mawr, a mainly residential neighborhood on the northwest side of the city.

Rahamim started the small company in the early 1980s in his Minneapolis home. The business specializes in making interior signs that comply with the Americans With Disabilities Act, including Braille signs for the blind.

Rahamim’s death was “a senseless act of violence,” son-in-law Chad Blumenfield said in a statement. “Other members of the Accent family tragically lost their lives as well, and we mourn their loss.”

UPS driver Keith Basinski was also killed, the mail service said in a statement Friday. UPS Northern Plains District President Jill Schubert said the company was “profoundly shocked and saddened” at his death.

Authorities have not revealed the names of the others killed.

Officers responding to the incident never fired their weapons, Minneapolis Police Sgt. Stephen McCarty told the Los Angeles Times.

“Among the dead was an individual identified as the suspect; it appeared that he died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound,” McCarty said.

Mayor R.T. Rybak told reporters that he and U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison, a Democrat, had recently visited Accent because they saw it as a national model for exporting practices.

“We are deeply sorry about what has happened here,” Rybak said, adding that it was “a horrible tragedy.” He said he’d been assured that the surviving employees were “together and being cared for.”

Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton condemned “this senseless violence,” adding: “There is no place for it anywhere in Minnesota. I extend my deepest condolences to the families and friends of the innocent people killed or wounded.”