Supermarket Rampage Leaves Four Dead

- By ROBERT MACY, AP

LAS VEGAS (AP) - A man dressed in camouflage blasted away with a pump-action shotgun as he roamed through a supermarket before sunrise Thursday, killing four employees and critically wounding one.  Police arrested the gunman in the parking lot after talking him out of killing himself.

Officers were alerted by a 911 call from inside the Albertsons supermarket as shots were being fired. They confronted a man with a goatee and shaved head who walked out the door with a shotgun.  ``He placed the gun to his head and officers were able to talk him into surrendering,'' Lt. Rick Alba said.

The victims were all shot at point-blank range, Officer Steve Meriwether said. Some were chased.

Zane Floyd, 23, who was honorably discharged from the Marines at Camp Pendleton, Calif., last July, was arrested for investigation of murder.  He worked as a security guard and part-time as a bouncer at a bar.

Investigators were baffled as to what triggered the rampage, Alba said.

Police have not found any connection between Floyd and the victims - three men and a woman - and there was no indication he had had any run-ins at the store.

Floyd was fired by Affirmative Security on May 14. Owner Laura Sellers said Floyd started missing shifts and acting differently after a while, but added ``there was not one incident of aggression, violence or abrupt behavior ... We're not looking at a bad boy or someone who would go insane at all.''  He didn't pick up his belongings and final paycheck until Wednesday night, Sellers said.

``He was agitated last night, a little bit more sarcastic,'' she said.

Fearing the gunman had an accomplice, police took at least three hours to search and clear the store, finding two employees hiding in a walk-in vegetable cooler.

Twenty-five people, including 14 employees, were in the 42,000-square foot store when the 911 call was made to police at 5:16 a.m., Clark County Sheriff Jerry Keller said.  ``There were people hiding throughout the store in various locations,'' Meriwether said.

Last weekend, Floyd moved from an apartment into a guest house behind his parents' home just two blocks from the supermarket, friends said.

``That's all they talked about is when he would be coming home from leave. They did everything they could for him,'' said neighbor Cathy Downey.

Floyd served four years in the Marines. After the Marines, he started college but dropped out, Downey said. Floyd had worked one day a week for the past month at Sneakers, a sports bar in Las Vegas, said bar manager Tom Smith.

``He's a regular 23-year-old guy who likes to party and hang out just like me.  I don't understand what happened,'' said Tony Marquez, a fellow bouncer.

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