VIRGINIA BEACH, VA — New details have emerged in the deadly mass shooting Friday at Virginia Beach Municipal Center, with officials describing how officers — with no building plans to guide them — painstakingly tracked down the gunman and numerous victims in a decades-old “honeycomb”of a building, which had been reconstructed multiple times and contained a web of connected and unconnected offices.
Hours before opening fire on city workers, killing a dozen people and injuring several others, officials said DeWayne Craddock emailed a superior, notifying of his plans to resign, officials said at a news conference Sunday. Craddock worked in the city’s utilities department as an engineer. He was taken into custody alive following a gun battle with police, but later died.
Jim Cervera, the city’s chief of police, said an investigation is still underway. But one of the key pieces of evidence they’re looking at is what led the shooter to commit what Cervera called a “horrific act.” Investigators delved into the suspected shooter’s employment status to see if it had anything to do with what unfolded. He dispelled notions that the shooter was fired.
“I will tell you he was not terminated and he was not in the process of being terminated,” said Cervera. “So hopefully we’ll be able to put that piece of this to rest.”
City Manager Dave Hansen said the suspected gunman’s performance was “satisfactory” and that he was an employee “in good standing.” Investigators were questioning witnesses about whether complaints or concerns were raised about the shooter before the attack.
“We continue to look at that,” said Hansen, but he added that “we are not sensing that.”
“I have no evidence that is the case,” he said.
Cervera added that they still haven’t found an obvious motive.
“We’re looking as deep as we can into motives from work, personal motives, professional motives, motives that could’ve happened,” he said.
“Right now, we do not have anything glaring. There’s nothing that hits you in between the eyes,” he later added.
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Emergency responders were called to building two around 4 p.m. Friday, Cervera said. The first officers arrived on scene, arriving outside the building, within two minutes of the call, he said.
“We have to remember this building has four floors. A basement and three stories,” said Cervera. “It has numerous entrances. Numerous exits. And they are different because citizens cannot enter certain areas because they are secure.”
There are also numerous stairwells and a basement tunnel connects to a second building, he added. All this to say that it was not a “sterile environment,” Cervera said.
“This is a huge building and we had no idea where the suspect was. We had no idea what the extent of the ‘shots being fired’ call really included,” he said.
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The building, first built in the 1970s, has undergone numerous renovations, Cervera added. Offices have been subdivided. Exits and entrances have changed.
“It’s a honeycomb,” he said. “That’s the best way to explain it. It’s a maze where the workers are.”
The area where the public enters is very controlled, but the further into the building one travels, the more difficult it is to navigate, he said.
“And no, we did not have plans to the building,” said Cervera. “And we weren’t in a place where we could review plans. We were moving at a rapid pace.”
Around 4:15 p.m., about five to eight minutes after entering the building, four officers from multiple commands confronted the gunman on the second floor as other officers stormed other sections of the building. A gunfight immediately ensued, though it remained unclear how many shots were fired or how long the shootout lasted.
“Although I do not have the exact number of rounds the perpetrator fired, it was well into the double-digits,” said Cervera, adding that the suspect moved as he fired.
Officers had to deal with closed and locked doors as panicked workers sought refuge. They also had to overcome connected and unconnected offices.
“At one point the suspect was firing through the door and through the wall at officers,” said Cervera. “And then the firing stopped.”
Officers realized he was in an office some distance away and knew they had to break into the room and confront the gunman so he couldn’t continue his rampage.
“That’s not an easy decision to make,” said Cervera. “There’s an individual on the other side of the door. He has a gun. He just shot one of your officers.”
That officer was wounded by gunfire around 4:19 p.m., said Cervera.
Officers eventually broke through the door and took the gunman into custody. He was alive at that time and received medical treatment. Officers pulled him out of the building and he was taken to a hospital, where he later died. The officers were not wearing body cameras, which the department is still phasing in, and video from inside the building wasn’t immediately accessible, Cervera said.
In all, it took 36 minutes to take the suspect into custody, give him medical treatment and remove him from the building. Cervera added it took 25 minutes for the first victims to be placed into an ambulance.
“Remember, there’s a lot that goes on between finding an individual who’s injured, getting them to an ambulance, and rendering aid that they need at the ambulance before that ambulance moves to a hospital,” said Cervera.
While this was going on, the rest of the building was being cleared by other officers.
Cervera said the workers did exactly as they were supposed to, and that such training should be given across America.
City Manager Dave Hansen reiterated Sunday that any connection between the gunman’s employment status and the shooting is part of an ongoing investigation.
“However, he was not terminated and he was not in the process of being terminated,” Hansen said.
Officials said the city offices at the municipal center would be closed Monday. This includes both the treasurer’s office and the commissioner’s office, which were inside building one. Schools and courts, as well as all other offices, will open as regularly scheduled.
On Tuesday, Hansen expects to reopen the municipal center except for building two, which will remain closed indefinitely.
Memorial services will be scheduled internally and externally for staff.
“Our recovery is underway. Our grieving is underway. Assistance to our families, our victims’ families is underway,” he said.
All families of the victims have been notified, Hansen said. Among the dead was Richard Neddleton, an engineer in public utilities, who was a supervisor of the suspected gunman. While he was not a direct supervisor, he was in the “chain of command,” Hansen said.