Man kills guard at federal building then commits suicide; may be linked to wrongful-termination suit
Late Friday afternoon, a gunman entered a federal building in Manhattan and fatally shot Idrissa Camara, 52, an armed private security guard there. He then went past a metal detector and approached another federal worker near an immigration court, before committing suicide, authorities said.
In addition to the immigration court, the New York building houses an office of the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics and other offices. The gunman was identified as military veteran Kevin Downing, 68, a resident of nearby New Jersey. Downing was fired from his job at the Bureau of Labor Statistics over a decade ago, but it is unknown whether that was a motive in the attack, according to DNA Info, NBC New York and the New York Times (reg. req.)
Downing had been struggling on multiple fronts, a subsequent New York Times (reg. req.) article reports, and a 15-year legal battle over what he said was a wrongful termination had achieved only hefty legal bills.
“He didn’t display any symptoms of deep anger or violence, he just seemed like someone who was obsessed and couldn’t move on from an incident that happened decades ago,” Tom Devine, who serves as legal director for the Government Accountability Project, told the newspaper.
A nonprofit that supports whistle-blowers, the project had been in contact with Downing for a decade, Devine said. “He was someone who just couldn’t stop beating his head against the wall.”
