Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, June 19, 1990 TAG: 9006190095
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: JACKSONVILLE, FLA. LENGTH: Medium
Five others were listed in critical but stable condition after the late-morning shootings by semiautomatic gunfire at the General Motors Acceptance Corp. office south of downtown.
The gunman also killed two people on the streets near his Jacksonville home Sunday, authorities said.
Richard Langille, a GMAC employee, said office workers dived under desks when the first of about 50 shots rang out in Monday's attack.
"And then we realized the guy was pointing his gun underneath people's desks and killing them one by one," said Langille. "I just saw the bottom of the carpet and just prayed."
Some of the wounded were shot seven or eight times each, hospital spokesmen said.
"The suspect apparently went in the front door and shot a couple of customers," said Sheriff James McMillan. "Then he went right through the office indiscriminately shooting employees, then turned the weapon on himself."
The gunman, James Edward Pough, 42, a day laborer from Jacksonville, had recently had a vehicle repossessed by GMAC, the sheriff said. McMillan said it was not known if that was the sole motive. The company said the car was a 1988 Pontiac Grand Am repossessed in January.
Pough began firing almost as soon as he walked through the door, McMillan said.
After shooting two customers, one fatally, he methodically went from desk to desk firing his rifle, witnesses said.
The gunman used a .30-caliber, clip-fed semiautomatic rifle for most of the shooting, but also had a .38-caliber revolver, authorities said. Police found several rifle clips, some empty and some full, inside the office.
"There's numerous magazines, plus numerous rounds in his pockets," said Deputy Ken Bozeman. "He was loaded for war."
A 9mm semiautomatic pistol was found in Pough's car parked outside of the building, McMillan said. He also had a .357-caliber Magnum registered to his name, but no information was given on that weapon's location.
The .38-caliber revolver used in the shootings was registered June 4, 1979, McMillan said. Agents from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms were checking whether the rifle was registered.
Pough was arrested in 1971 in Duval County on a charge of homicide, but was never convicted. In July 1971, he was given five years probation on a charge of aggravated assault, according to Florida Department of Corrections records.
The 1971 court records show that adjudication would be withheld after his probation period, meaning that Pough would not have a record in that case if he obeyed the terms of probation. That would mean he could legally possess a gun.
The sheriff said that Pough also was arrested in 1968 "for dangerously displaying a weapon."
McMillan said Pough has also been "positively identified" by witnesses as the killer of a man and woman in separate shootings early Sunday.
Louis Carl Bacon, 39, and Doretta Drake, 30, were walking through a northwest section of Jacksonville, near where Pough lived, and were killed with the same .30-caliber rifle used in the Monday massacre, McMillan said.
McMillan said at least one of the Sunday shootings stemmed from arguments over "services of a prostitute." He did not elaborate.
Records show that Pough was married, but neighbors told reporters they had not seen his wife for some time.
At the GMAC, five employees, a customer and the gunman died at the scene at the Baymeadows office complex, said John Andrews, a company spokesman in Detroit. Two other employees died at hospitals.
The wounded were airlifted or taken by ambulance to hospitals, where they were in critical but stable condition.
One man had gunshot wounds on both sides of his chest and in his abdomen, Edelberg said. A woman was shot eight times, including both sides of her chest and her abdomen.
Another one was hit seven times, in her arms and legs.
In addition to Pough, the dead were identified as Drew Woods, Denise Highfill, Janice David, Sharon Louise Hall, Barbara Duckwall Holland, Julia White Burgess, Lee Simonton and Cynthia Perry.
The wounded were Ron Ecchevaria, Jewel Belote, Nancy Dill, Phyllis Griggs and David Hendrix.
The death total matched the worst single-day episode in Florida, a 1982 massacre at a Miami machine shop where nine died and three were wounded.
by CNB