Police Identify Victims, Shooter in Ford Killings

Police Identify Victims, Shooter in Ford Killings
Police investigate at the scene of a shooting at the Morgan Hill Ford Store in Morgan Hill, Calif., on June 25, 2019. (Nic Coury/AP Photo)
The Associated Press
6/27/2019
Updated:
6/27/2019

MORGAN HILL, Calif.—Police have released the names of three people killed in a shooting at a Northern California car dealership, including the gunman.

Morgan Hill police say 60-year-old Steven Leet of San Jose had been fired less than two hours before he took a gun from his car Tuesday evening and shot his boss in the Ford Store parts department.

Police say Leet killed 38-year-old Xavier Souto of San Jose in an office and then killed another manager, 59-year-old Brian Light of San Jose.

Police say Light was shot as he tried to disarm the gunman, but his efforts gave employees and customers precious moments to flee.

After the killings, Leet went outside and killed himself.

Police called to the Ford Store Morgan Hill Tuesday evening found a man dead of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot on the ground near the store’s service bays.

“In his hand was a firearm, a handgun,” police Sgt. Bill Norman told reporters in Morgan Hill, near San Jose in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Employees directed officers inside a building where they found two other men who had been shot and killed at the scene.

Doug MacGlashan, who was working in the parts department, told KRON-TV that the gunman had just been fired from his job.

Police investigate at the scene of a shooting at the Morgan Hill Ford Store in Morgan Hill, Calif., on June 25, 2019. (Nic Coury/AP Photo)
Police investigate at the scene of a shooting at the Morgan Hill Ford Store in Morgan Hill, Calif., on June 25, 2019. (Nic Coury/AP Photo)

The service and parts director “had just fired a parts rep that he had said he was going to fire earlier in the day. And I guess the parts rep went outside, got a gun, went into the service and parts director’s office and shot him,” MacGlashan said.

The man also killed the parts manager, he said.

Video and photos showed police cars from several agencies swarming the dealership and employees hugging each other as they left the property.