Seventeen seconds of terror in government office shooting

Washington — The Homeland Security Department missed warning signs of a disgruntled federal agent’s descent toward violence and could have intervened before a deadly gun battle inside a government office building in southern California, according to a confidential, internal investigation.

The government’s investigation, which started nearly a year after the shootings and took 18 months, revealed details about the private life of the dead agent, Ezequiel “Zeke” Garcia, 45, and clarified how the February 2012 gun fight unfolded in the Long Beach offices of U.S. Homeland Security Investigations. An unarmed senior regional manager, Kevin Kozak, suffered serious wounds to his hands, abdomen, back and leg.

Garcia’s supervisor, Perry Woo, killed Garcia after Garcia started firing 23 rounds from his service pistol in 17 seconds without warning during a disciplinary meeting. Garcia reloaded and resumed firing beforeWoo killed him.

The report offers an unusual glimpse into workplace violence, which kills more than 700 Ameri- cans each year. The AP obtained a censored copy of the 36-page report five months after requesting it under the U.S. Freedom of Information

The government concluded that Garcia was a walking advertisement for workplace intervention. His previous supervisor, John Rocha, said Garcia told him that the agency “had taken away from him everything that mattered” and said he had to “talk (Garcia) off the ledge every day in an effort to motivate him to work,” the report said. His estranged wife was so worried about remarks by Garcia days before the office shooting, she wrote them down.

Garcia had been the subject of four sexual harassment complaints, which were substantiated, and he complained to coworkers that his bosses were unfairly scrutinizing him in order to demote him after 21 years in federal law enforcement.

“The review revealed missed opportunities for intervention that, had they been pursued, may have prevented the tragic result,” the report said. It said Garcia’s behaviors “demonstrate acts of misconduct and behavior that would have alerted management, if they had been aware of his history.”