ORLANDO, Fla. — A man was shot to death Monday morning outside an Orlando office of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and the alleged gunman was later arrested after a short car chase ending in Kissimmee, according to the Orlando Police Department.
Orlando police spokesperson Lt. Diego Toruno said the man was walking with a woman toward the federal building on Corporate Centre Boulevard near Lee Vista Boulevard shortly before 10 a.m. when a vehicle pulled up and a man opened fire. Toruno did not identify any of the three people involved.
The woman escaped without injuries, but the man she was with died at the scene, Toruno said. The alleged shooter then drove away from the building.
Orlando police officers soon located the suspect’s vehicle, chasing him for at least 20 miles until they caught up in Kissimmee, where he was arrested.
Toruno did not say if the three people knew each other, or why they were at the USCIS building early Monday.
Bonnie Brandão was inside the building to take her citizenship test — already a “nervous and exciting day” for her — when she suddenly heard a popping sound, then people screaming.
”Everybody was running, trying to find cover,” Brandão said. “We thought somebody was coming inside to shoot the place up. ... I was kind of panicking.”
She ran to the back of the room, trying to get away from the entrance, the Cape Verde native said. She said her husband, who was waiting in the parking lot for her, witnessed the shooting and saw the gunman drive away. She said he considered trying to follow the gunman, not wanting him to get away, but then held back. He called her to tell her to stay inside, while she told him to get away from any shooter.
“I didn’t want him to get hurt,” Brandão said, who’s lived in the U.S. for more than 40 years, now in Poinciana. ”It was scary, I never experienced anything like that.”
She said people inside the building at the time of the shooting weren’t allowed to leave for about 30 minutes, but witnesses had to stay behind to speak further to investigators.
The shooter never entered the building, she said.
Outside the building Monday, crime tape enclosed the parking lot, while multiple evidence tags — often used to mark bullet casings — surrounded a body on the ground. The building remained closed through the afternoon, with many people turned away.
Jesper Helt, of Cocoa Beach, said his wife was outside the building waiting for their daughter, who was inside for a final interview before her citizenship ceremony. Helt said his wife saw the shooting when it happened and called him afterward “very distraught and upset.”
Helt said his daughter was also distressed from the screams outside and the panic among others inside the building.
His daughter was released but Helt said he was still waiting for his wife Monday afternoon to finish being interviewed by police.
“All of a sudden, it hits too close to home,” he said.
USCIS spokesperson Sharon Scheidhauer said the agency is offering its condolences to the friends and family who lost a loved one Monday.
“We are fully cooperating with local law enforcement authorities as they investigate this incident,” Scheidhauer wrote in a statement.
