ORANGE PARK, Fla. – A man opened fire inside his workplace on Monday, wounding one co-worker, before he shot and killed himself, according to the Clay County Sheriff's Office.
The shooting was reported at Jacksonville Granite on Industrial Loop West in Clay County.
Dean Hagins Jr., 26, the co-worker who was shot, ran from the business, jumped a 6-foot fence into an adjacent neighborhood and was helped by a homeowner on Balsa Court, who called 911. Hagins was taken to Orange Park Medical Center with non-life-threatening injuries.
The shooter, James Cameau, 34, locked himself in a room at the business and killed himself, deputies said. He had been working at Jacksonville Granite for only about a month and was apparently living in the nearby Astoria Hotel, deputies said.
Deputies said it appears to have been a random shooting, because several employees were targeted. There were 11 employees in the building at the time, deputies said.
Clay County Undersheriff Craig Aldrich said Cameau left abruptly around 10 a.m. for what co-workers thought was his lunch break and returned about noon with a semi-automatic weapon.
Aldrich said Cameau pointed the gun at several co-workers working outside the building, told them to run and then pulled the trigger. The gun jammed twice, Aldrich said.
The third time, Cameau was able to fire off several rounds, hitting Hagins as he was running away. He also fired at the business owner's truck, as the owner, Mike Rich, arrived at the scene, Aldrich said.
“At least two people that he was at point-blank range with could have lost their life," Aldrich said. "The good Lord was looking down on them. They're very fortunate.”
Rich told News4Jax that the shooting was unexpected, scary and could have been a lot worse. He said he was headed home to hug his children.
Witness saw workers running for their lives
One witness who called 911 to report the shooting described the incident as pure chaos.
Frank Owens said he saw workers running for their lives.
“They came out of the granite shop, out this way, and then two of them went that way and ran across the field into the back of the shop back there,” Owens said.
Owens described hearing two loud shots and what sounded like granite falling.
"Then the next thing you know, there was a guy running toward the fence," Owens said.
That man was Hagins, who jumped the fence and ran to safety.
Gunman aimed 'right at his face'
Hagins' sister said he had only recently started working at Jacksonville Granite.
“My brother called me on the phone, and he said that he had been shot and that I needed to call my dad and that he couldn’t get hold of him, and he was freaking out and really upset,” Taylor Hagins said.
She said her brother told their father at the hospital that the shooter had threatened to shoot him in the stomach, so he ran away and the bullet caught him in his rear end.
Dean Hagins ran to a nearby home, and the homeowner, Ruben Guengue, helped Hagins run as far as he could, because he was afraid that Hagins was being chased by a gunman. When they reached the other side of Guengue's property, Hagins collapsed, and Guengue called 911.
"In today’s world, anything can happen. It’s a crazy world," Guengue said. "I’m 76 years old. Nothing scares me."
Hagins' father, Dean Hagins Sr., told News4Jax on Monday night that his son was doing well and sitting up in bed. The elder Hagins said his sister, nephew and brother were also at the business when Cameau started shooting.
"My son faced him first and he shot right at his face, and the gun misfired," Hagins said. "My son thought it was a fake gun, and he went back to work, and the guy walked off. "
'He didn't seem like that type of person'
Hagins' nephew, Chandler Garza, said he was working on a piece of granite and heard a pop and what he thought was a piece of granite falling over.
“I was standing right next to him. He was pointing right at me telling me to run. I wasn't taking him too seriously at first. I thought it was a toy gun or something," Chandler said. "I didn't think he would do something like that. He didn't seem like that type of person.”
Garza said Cameau started firing shots inside the shop and was pointing the gun at his co-workers, telling them all to run, so everyone took off.
"Once I realized, I saw the look on his face, I saw how serious he was, I turned around and hauled butt," Garza said. "He was kind of a quiet guy. He lived here for a couple of months. I had taken lunch with him a few times, but I didn't know him too well."
Cameau went into the building through the back as other employees ran through the front office, deputies said.
When law enforcement arrived, Cameau locked himself in Rich's office, where the shop's surveillance equipment was kept, and killed himself.
"You don't expect it to hit your home. You hear it on TV. You hear it through friends, but you never expect it to come to your home," Hagins Sr. said. "The first thing I did is ask God, 'Please don't let my son die. Please let it be a flesh wound or something. But please don't let my son die. Please.' And the next call I got was that he was shot in the rear end, and that brought me a little bit of ease."
Know your escape route
News4Jax crime and safety analyst Gil Smith said it's important to always have a planned escape route in such situations.
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“We're seeing this more and more around the country. If you know of an employee who has weapons and is disgruntled with management for whatever reason and leaves or even talks about threats, you really must let someone know, so they can notify law enforcement," Smith said. "You also want to keep all of the entryways and exits clear, even if they're not used. That way in a situation like this, you can utilize them.
"In a workplace shooting situation or any type of shooting situation, people are going to do one of three things: run, hide or fight, or a combination of those. Naturally, the first instinct is to hide or run, so you need to know where the exits are and where you can get out clearly," Smith said. "Or if you fight, or you're close to the person and you think you have the ability to take the person down, do that, because you may be saving lives.”
Aldrich said deputies and Orange Park police officers arrived within six minutes of the calls about the shooting and immediately went into active-shooter protocol.
“That is something that is very real in today's climate,” Aldrich said. “In this particular situation, the suspect ended his own life, but they were ready to stop that threat immediately.”
Aldrich said co-workers told deputies that Cameau had seemed despondent over the last few days, but no one knew why.
Cameau had one arrest on his record, a DUI charge in Duval County in 2006.