Gunman kills four and himself in Accent Signage Systems office shooting on day after he was laid off

Police say a gunman who opened fire inside a Minneapolis sign company is dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound after a shooting rampage at the office where he had been laid off hours before.

Shots rang out inside Accent Signage Systems in the Bryn Mawr neighbourhood at about 4:30pm on Thursday. The residential area was left shaken by the massacre.

Reports said that the shooter, who has not yet been identified, had been laid off from the company earlier in the day before and retued to the small business with a gun.

Out in force: Heavily armed police responded to the shooting at Accent Signage Systems in the Bryn Mawr neighborhood of Minneapolis

Wound: An unidentified woman is consoled at the scene of a shooting that left at least two dead and four others wounded at Accent Signage Systems in Minneapolis, Thursday, Sept. 27, 2012

Investigation: Police investigate a shooting that left at least two dead and four others wounded at Accent Signage Systems in Minneapolis, Thursday, Sept. 27, 2012

Accent's founder, Reuven Rahamim, was among the dead, his son-in-law, Chad Blumenfield, said today.

The death toll in the shooting was set at five, including the gunman.

Blumenfield said in a statement to the Associated Press that other employees died, but he provided no details.

Other high ranking officials in the small company were injured, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

The Star Tribune reported that among those in critical condition were director of operations John Souter and production manager Eric Rivers.

Heather Buckingham, who lives near the office, told KARE 11 that she used to work at the company as a receptionist, and was familiar with the gunman - as well as his victims.

Investigation: The small company was the focus of a massive police response after the shooting in the late afteoon hours of Thursday

Witness? A sheriff's deputy investigates a shooting that left at least two dead and four others wounded at Accent Signage Systems in Minneapolis, Thursday, Sept. 27, 2012

She said: 'It’s insane, it’s crazy. I know the guy, I know all the people.'

She told the station that the shooter had been fired from the company earlier in the day, and described him as a 'kind of odd' man who 'kept to himself.'

Hennepin County Medical Center was treating three people from the scene, all in critical condition, spokeswoman Christine Hill said.

By Thursday evening, officers were slowly walking around the scene without their weapons drawn and interviewing neighbors.

Traffic was stopped on a nearby bridge along Penn Avenue, where earlier in the day law enforcement officers had rifles drawn and pointed at a park below.

Crime scene: A woman is escorted away from the office building after the shooting on Thursday afteoon

 

Armed: Hennepin County Medical Center was treating three people from the scene, all in critical condition

People from the neighborhood milled around the office building but deputies kept them back.

Marques Jones, 18, of Minneapolis, said he was outside a building down the street having his picture taken when he and his photographer heard gunfire that sounded close.

'We heard about four to five gunshots,' Jones said. 'We were shocked at what happened and we just looked at each other. We all just took off running to our vehicles.'

Phone messages left at the business was not immediately retued, and a woman who answered the phone at Rahamim's residential listing declined comment.

The company employed 28 people as of July, according to a feature on the business in Finance & Commerce, a local business publication. It was founded by Rahamim in 1984.

SWAT: Officers have not yet released details about the shooter, who was an ex-employee of the company

Tragedy: Residents of the neighborhood milled around the building after the shooting on Thursday, but deputies kept them back

The paper reported that U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce Francisco Sanchez visited it in August in a trip focused on exporting and praised the company for its innovation.

The company developed a patented technology for producing signs in Braille and had licensed the technology to companies in 38 countries, the newspaper said.

Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak said employees who were working when the shootings occurred were together and being cared for Thursday evening.

'We are deeply sorry about what has happened here,' he said, calling the shootings 'a horrible tragedy.'