Jason Rodriguez makes his first appearance before Circuit Judge Walter Komanski at... (AP Photo/Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda, Pool)
ORLANDO, Fla. (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, was ordered held without bail at the Orange County Jail, where he is under suicide watch after Friday's shooting. His mother, Ana Rodriguez, 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," she said.
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 Rodriguez "is a very, very mentally ill person" who lost his emotional stability because of deep financial problems.
"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."
Employees at Reynolds, Smith and Hills 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. He then walked into the office and unloaded several more rounds, wounding five other employees at the company he had been fired from two years ago.
Orlando police identified the five wounded victims Saturday as Gregory Hornbeck, 39; Ferrell Hickson, 40; Guy Lugenbeel, 62; Edward Severino; 34; and Keyondra Harrison; 27. All were in stable condition at Orlando hospitals, and all were expected to survive.
Rodriguez was taken into custody several hours after the shooting. He has been charged with first-degree murder.
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 him why he had attacked his former colleagues.
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