Fla. Suspect a Case of "Stress Overload"

Ex-Employee Held Without Bail, Charged With Murder in Shooting Spree at Former Workplace; Claimed Money Troubles

(CBS/AP)  The engineer accused of fatally shooting one employee and wounding five others at the firm where he once worked is "very mentally ill" and crumbled under the stress of his divorce, bankruptcy and unemployment, his attorney said Saturday.

Jason Rodriguez, 40, is under suicide watch at the Orange County Jail, following Friday's shooting.

His mother also apologized Saturday, telling reporters she is "so sorry for everything that has happened."

"Sorry for the families involved. I'm really very sorry, it is very hurtful," Ana Rodriguez said, after a judge ordered her son held without bail.

Public defender Bob Wesley asked the judge at a brief court appearance Saturday that police and prosecutors have no contact with Rodriguez without his permission.

Wesley told reporters that Jason Rodriguez "is a very, very mentally ill person" who lost his emotional stability because of the deep financial problems he was having.

"This guy is a compilation of the front page of the entire year - unemployment, foreclosure, bankruptcy, divorce - all of the stresses," Wesley said. "He has been declining in mental health. There is no logic whatsoever, which points to a mental health case. It looks like a classic case of stress overload."

Police said Rodriguez told detectives he blamed the firm for recent trouble he had receiving unemployment benefits.

As officers led him handcuffed into a police station Friday, a reporter asked the divorced 40-year-old why he had attacked his former colleagues.

"Because they left me to rot," said Rodriguez, who recently told a bankruptcy judge he was making less than $30,000 a year at a Subway sandwich shop and had debts of nearly $90,000.

All the victims worked at Reynolds, Smith and Hills, where Rodriguez was an entry-level engineer for 11 months before he was fired in June 2007, the company said.

Employees at the Orlando firm recognized their former co-worker when he drew a handgun from a holster under his shirt, police said, and killed Otis Beckford, 26, next to a receptionist's desk in an office at a downtown Orlando tower. Beckford was hit by at least two bullets.

The Orlando Sentinel reported that Beckford had a young daughter and a fiancee.

Police say Rodriguez then walked into the office and unloaded several more rounds, wounding five other employees.

Rodriguez was taken into custody several hours after the shooting, and police say he will be charged with first-degree murder and other crimes.

The five wounded people were in stable condition at Orlando hospitals and police say all are expected to survive. Four of the victims, three men and a woman ranging in age from 23 to 49, were recovering Saturday at Orlando Regional Medical Center, said hospital spokeswoman Katie Dagenais.

Hours after the shootings that paralyzed downtown Orlando, police tracked Rodriguez to his mother's home and ordered him to come out. He surrendered peacefully, apologizing as officers handcuffed him, police said.

"I'm just going through a tough time right now. I'm sorry," officers quoted him as saying.

Rodriguez worked on drawings in the firm's transportation group, but his supervisors said his performance was not up to their standards, and when he did not improve, he was fired. The company did not hear from him again.

"This is really a mystery to us," said Ken Jacobson, the firm's general legal counsel and chief financial officer. "There was nothing to indicate any hard feelings."

Rodriguez told detectives that the company had fired him without cause and had made him look incompetent. He told them he was unemployed for a year and a half before getting a job at a Subway, where he worked until recently.

He told them the shop couldn't give him enough hours, and he later filed for unemployment. He expected to get a check recently but when it didn't arrive he blamed Reynolds, Smith and Hills, thinking it was harming his efforts to qualify, police said. He told police he could no longer support his family.

Rodriguez' bankruptcy filing and his former mother-in-law suggested he was plagued by money woes.

Les Winograd, a spokesman for Milford, Conn.-based Subway Restaurants, said Rodriguez had worked for one of the sandwich shops in the Orlando area until six weeks ago. He would not say whether Rodriguez was fired.

His ex-wife's mother, America Holloway, told The Associated Press that Rodriguez and her daughter, Neshby, were married for about 6½ years before divorcing several years ago. They have an 8-year-old son who lives with Neshby in Kissimmee, about a half-hour away.

Holloway said the couple lived with her in Orlando for several years and that Rodriguez abused her daughter and once threw all her clothes into the street.

"I used to tell my daughter he was crazy," Holloway said. "He was always fighting, always yelling. There was always problems."

After the divorce, Rodriguez seldom saw his son, but he called last week while the child was at Holloway's house and the boy asked his father why he did not come over, too.

"He said, 'Because I don't have any money. I don't have a job. I don't have anything to eat. When things get better, I'll come see you,"' Holloway said Rodriguez told his son.

Charles Price, an attorney who represented Rodriguez in his bankruptcy case, said he could not comment on specifics of the matter. He had not seen Rodriguez since the summer.

The Sentinel reported that Rodriguez was detained by the Orange County Sheriff's Office in June 2007 after it received a report that he was a "danger to self and others."

Nursing aide Denise Exume, 39, told The Associated Press on Friday that during the 2007 incident she was asked to watch him after he was taken to Florida Hospital-East in Orlando for a mental health exam. He wasn't allowed to leave the room, but he stood up and said he wanted to use the bathroom. Exume tried to block him.

"He just pushed me," she said. He left, and she was evaluated in the emergency room and didn't press charges. The hospital declined comment, citing privacy laws.

[mutnauq4842]

home page: http://www.fullstores.com


Massive advertisement on CBS dime

[SusanStoHelit]

From the sounds of it - he was a person who resorted to violence when upset anyway. This is just one more step on that path, a thug who thinks violence is how you get what you want, doing so once again.

He'd have responded this way no matter what the times - there's always stress in our lives.

And being an engineer unable to keep up with the work at his first job in the field, unable to get a job LONG BEFORE this economic collapse - obviously he was not much of an employee either. But - he's a thug, so it must be the employer's fault, not his own.

[o_nolan1]

With every new example of horror, we are witnessing the implosion of your country. The United States is a disaster on so many levels. The worst disaster is that there is no political will to fix it. The Democratic Party can't even agree on health reform. Each time there is dissension in the ranks, nothing can be accomplished. Your political structure was designed to be a system of checks and balances, but it has become a system of stalling, bickering, finger pointing, and lobbying.

The NRA is more powerful than the President? Health insurers are more powerful than the President? China will be zipping right on past you. The sun is setting on the United States of America and you only have yourselves to blame for continuing to elect politicians who are not interested in the common good. 'Every man for himself' doesn't work.

[mutnauq4842]

Yup, it's a good thing the US abandoned that old fashioned Judeo-
Christian work ethic when it did. No telling what kind of trouble this country would have been in by now. That outdated morality thing of not lying, stealing, killing or improper sexuality. What kind of trouble would this country be in if we had followed that dumb moral code?

[stryker54]

They need to take these idiots that do this. When there is evidence like this and everyone knows he did it, arrest him and sentence him to death, than do it no appeals, just a 38 hollow point to the back of the head. If people realized they quick outcome maybe they wouldn't be so quick to say I was stressed out. End their stress, kill em.

[vancouverboo]

Capital Punishment will relieve him of all stress.

[liselle3]

michellereducf
Blaming that employer is a pathetic excuse.

I agree! There is a direct correlation between actions and consequences, and people just don't see that sometimes. If you don't perform as expected, or call in sick or are tardy, you will get fired and the company is not to blame. Organizations are not in business to be benevolent, they are in business to make products and succeed. If you don't fit in, then they will fire you. They are under no obligation to keep you on the payroll because they feel sorry for you. Sounds like this guy had a propensity towards violence and was difficult to deal with and angry. Doesn't sound like a guy I'd want on the payroll either.

[dontknowitall]

Stress Overload generally results in Murder/Suicide. I would prefer that anyone with Stress Overload to consider Suicide/Murder. If this nitwit went overboard and committed murder and had given no though to taking his own life......he knew what he was doing and deserves nothing less the the DEATH PENALTY as soon as he is found guilty. Burn baby Burn.

[juiceblog]

The human spirit is very fragile.
"Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle." -
Plato - Greek author & philosopher in Athens (427 BC - 347 BC)

[dnamj]

I'm stressed out too. If I ebd up cracking, guess how many people I will shoot? Zero, because I don't have a gun. Too bad that's not true of everyone.

[Phxfire]

Ditto to all of you statements, dnamj

[askagain]

There are four guns in my home for protection. I, too, don't plan on shooting anyone unless my life or that of my wife is at risk. I also have an alarm system. Those who don't take measures to protect themselves are only fooling themselves. In a home invasion or a break-in, you are leaving yourself defenseless. That defies common semse and logic.

[John_Merritt]

"Fla. Suspect a Case of "Stress Overload" Is that a professional or clinical diagnosis. My unofficial, unprofessional opinion is 'he done fell out of life', 'he lost it', 'he completely snapped' or any of the combinations. Stress overload is seen everyday in many throughout. What do they do? They get in arguments, they go out and get drunk, they kick the dog, they yell at their children. Please give us something to work with.

If you notice anyone that is having 'stress overload' befriend them, be nice to them, offer them a kind word, give them an atta boy even if they haven't earned it yet. Everywhere you look people are getting stretched to the limits and what many need are friends before jobs.

His plea as already expressed by the attorney, indirectly, "Innocent by reason of insanity". Have a good day everyone and don't forget to be nice to others.

[mutnauq4842]

Great Point. The other shoe hasn't dropped on the economy.

Let's see what thought's run through one's mind when it becomes their time in the pressure cooker.

[Tammie49]

If I am feeling so stressed about losing a job that I am entertaining the possibility of violence, then I will be seeking some counseling. At what point do people take personal accountability for their actions? There are so many other choices that don't include violence. There just isn't an excuse for this type of behavior.

[charlie7410]

I don't know. Whats yer "responsibility meter" say?

[kaylag04]

"He has been declining in mental health. There is no logic whatsoever, which points to a mental health case. It looks like a classic case of stress overload."

I've got to wonder, is there anyone, anywhere, under any circumstances, that has responsibility for their own individual actions? The "Life is Hard" defense has so much traction, it's become the theme for explaining away poor choices and squandered opportunities. It's the defense for everything from infidelity to poor parenting to murder.

[charlie7410]

You.. rich elites. You're a family.. A family of elites. A family of beurocratic appointees.. Yer resumes yer nepotisms and yer religions.. and yer club memberships. Work ain't work no more.. its suckkkin dickkkk.

[charlie7410]

While I don't condone what this fella did, I find it difficult to accept the argument that losing one's job isn't supposed to be taken personally. I mean, not unless you quit. But if you're going to fire somebody, at least offer them some constructive criticism they can work with before "leaving them to rot".

[michellereducf]

He was fired from the job almost 2 1/2 years ago. Blaming that employer is a pathetic excuse.

[Newster1]

The Orlando Sentinel reported that Beckford had a young daughter and a fiancee"

He still has a daughter and fiancee, they are still here...

"Rodriguez worked on drawings in the firm's transportation group, but his supervisors said his performance was not up to their standards, and when he did not improve, he was fired."

And thats the company's fault I guess...

"This is really a mystery to us," said Ken Jacobson, the firm's general legal counsel and chief financial officer. "There was nothing to indicate any hard feelings."

Wow yeah some mystery there!