This undated handout photo courtesy of the Orlando Police Department (OPD) shows Jason Rodriguez. Two people were killed and six hurt Friday in the second mass shooting in the United States in as many days, with police still hunting the gunman in Orlando, Florida, emergency officials said.
In the second mass shooting in the United States in two days, the alleged shooter, 40-year-old Jason Rodriguez, was later and arrested and dragged away in handcuffs from his mother's house.
His arrest hours after unleashing a hail of bullets on former colleagues came as Americans reeled from a rampage 24 hours earlier at a Texas military base that left 13 people dead and 30 wounded.
Panicked Florida workers barricaded themselves into their offices at the Gateway Center in central Orlando as SWAT teams combed through the 16-storey building, trying to find the shooter.
Some three hours later he was eventually tracked down at his mother's house. It was not immediately clear if she or someone else had telephoned the authorities.
"We received information that he may be in the area of his mother's residence. We sent some officers and our SWAT team out there," Orlando police chief Val Demings told a press conference.
"They confirmed they had intelligence on him. They were able to see him through the window and asked him to come out. He did. He was arrested without incident."
Given his outburst to journalists about being left to rot, Rodriguez is assumed to have been exacting revenge for his dismissal by architectural engineering firm Reynolds, Smith and Hills more than two years ago.
"He did work for us, for one year. He was let go in July 2007, he has been gone for over two years," Ken Jacobson, the CFO of the firm, told AFP.
"We have not heard or seen of him since, that is what's hard to work out about all this."
The fire department told AFP initially that two people had been killed and eight wounded but police later confirmed the lower toll. "We do have one confirmed death," said Demings.
Police first received a call that shots were being fired at the office building shortly after 11:30 am (1630 GMT).
A helicopter hovered over the scene as workers fled the scene and dozens of police cars locked down the area surrounding the center, dramatic television images showed.
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