NEW YORK — A New Jersey man walked into a federal building near the SoHo neighborhood of Manhattan on Friday afternoon and fatally shot a security guard before killing himself, the authorities said.
Law enforcement officials said the victim, Idrissa Camara, 53, was a private security guard who worked inside the building at 201 Varick St.
“The perp walks in the door, goes into the security line, pulls out a gun” and shoots the guard, an official said.
A police official identified the gunman as Kevin Downing, 68, a military veteran from Fort Lee. The police said late Friday that they learned through scouring public sources including the Internet that Downing, a onetime employee of the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, had apparently been fired more than a decade ago after criticizing the agency’s spending. He did not have a criminal record.
The bureau has an office in the federal building, though the authorities said it was unclear if Downing ever worked there. “It’s going to take a while to figure out the motive,” one law enforcement official said.
The shooting will be investigated by the FBI, according to Kelly Langmesser, a spokeswoman for the agency’s New York office.
Speaking to reporters outside the federal building Friday, James P. O’Neill, the chief of department of the New York Police Department, said the gunman opened fire at 5:05 p.m. and then walked farther into the building.
When he reached the elevators, he “encountered another employee” and then fatally shot himself in the head. The second employee was not a guard, O’Neill said.
“There is no indication of a connection to terrorism,” O’Neill said. The authorities said it was not clear if there was any connection between the gunman and the security guard.
Police officials said Downing used a .38-caliber revolver he had hidden in a bag until he approached the security line. Police found a second revolver inside the bag after the shooting.
The guard was taken to Lenox Hill Hospital, where he died. Downing died at the scene, O’Neill said.
Another law enforcement official said Friday night that before he was apparently fired from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Downing had been particularly critical of a decision by the bureau to open a new office in New Jersey.
“Then he became one of these official whistleblowers, saying he was reporting on government waste,” the official said. “He has this long running thing.”
Downing tried for years to get his job back to no avail. On Friday, The Record of Hackensack, New Jersey, reported that in March 2013 U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell wrote a letter on Downing’s behalf, praising him as a whistleblower to prospective employers. The Record also said Downing had contacted the newspaper many times over the years to ask them to cover his termination in the hope it would trigger a “local whistleblower scandal.”
Camara worked as a private protective officer for FJC Security, a private company contracted by the federal government.
Michael McKeon, a spokesman for the company, said Camara was supposed to leave work at 4 p.m. Friday, more than an hour before the shooting, but had volunteered to stay late. He said Camara was armed, trained and “knew that building better than anyone else.”
“It’s clear from the facts that he never had a chance to defend himself in this instance,” McKeon said in a statement. He said Camara had worked for FJC Security Services since it took over security operations at 201 Varick St. two years ago.
He said the company’s records did not indicate any link between Camara and Downing.
Hector Figueroa, president of 32BJ SEIU, a union that represents security guards in New York City, said his organization was “shocked and horrified” at Camara’s death.
“Security officers around the city and country serve on the front line each and every day to keep us safe and secure,” Figueroa said. “We are heartbroken that one of our own has fallen.”
Mike Charles, a deliveryman who said he had been friends with Camara for 10 years, described him as a soft-spoken, married father of three who was quick with a joke.
The two became friends because Charles delivered packages to the federal building each morning.
“This morning he was ragging on me about what time I signed in,” Charles said. “He was laughing.”
Camara immigrated to the United States from Ivory Coast, a spokesperson for FJC Security Services said. As he approached retirement age, he often expressed a desire to return, Charles said.
“He mostly just spoke about back home,” Charles said. “He wanted to move back home.”
Camara’s friends and family mourned him Friday night at their home in Harlem, their wails and cries echoing down the hallways of the building. Fatima Sow, who said she had lived next door to Camara for more than 17 years, called him “a wonderful person.”
Family friends said Camara had four children, from a toddler to a daughter in her 20s. Christina McKnight, 18, wept as she stood outside Camara’s home. “He was a family man,” she said. “He loved spending time with his family.”
The federal building at 201 Varick St. houses offices for several agencies, including a post office, an immigration court, an immigration detention center and an office used by U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler, a Democrat.
Law enforcement blocked the street in front of Downing’s home in Fort Lee on Friday night, as neighbors struggled to reconcile the man they knew with the violent act he was said to have committed.