Police look on after shooting gunman Jeffrey Johnson near the Empire State Building in New York August 24, 2012. Two people were killed and at least eight wounded in a shooting outside New York City's Empire State Building on Friday, creating chaos and shocking tourists and commuters who witnessed the bloody scene outside the tourist attraction. A 53-year-old fashion accessories designer, disgruntled over being fired a year ago, shot and killed a 41-year-old former co-worker three times with a .45 caliber handgun on a sidewalk near the landmark building, officials said. (Photo : REUTERS/Guillermo Ratzlaff)

Jeffrey Johnson, the gunman of the Empire State Building shooting, has acted on his year-long grudge from a workplace dispute, taking the life of his former co-worker, before losing his own life.

A police report revealed that the shooter, who is described as a quiet and lonely man, once told the victim “I am going to kill you.”
Jeffrey Johnson, 58, a “disgruntled” former employee at a women’s accessory firm in Manhattan, opened fire right after 9 a.m.

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Friday morning in the busy street just behind the Empire State Building, killing one and injuring nine others. The gunman himself was shot dead.

Armed with a .45-caliber handgun, Johnson was dressed in a suit and tie and carrying a briefcase as he always did.

Walking up to Steve Ercolino, 41, the office manager of a women’s handbag company Hazan Imports at 10 W. 33rd St., Johnson took out his gun and shot Ercolino in the head. According to witnesses, Johnson fired twice right in the face of the victim, and once again as the victim fell to the ground.

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly too confirmed that there were at least three gunshots at Ercolino.

Johnson then opened fire at the NYPD officers. After he pointed his gun at two police officers, he was shot dead.

Nine people were wounded in the rush-hour gunfire, but fortunately none suffered life-threatening injuries.

Jeffrey Johnson worked at Hazan as a designer for 6 years, before being laid off last year.

Johnson and Ercolino was involved in a dispute.

"They had issues," said John Koch, 58, manager of the building where victim worked.
"They didn't like each other."

Once, while riding in an elevator, Johnson told Ercolino, “I am going to kill you,” according to a police report cited by NBC New York.

Those who acquainted with Johnson described him as a quiet and lonely man.

“This guy was very mellow," said Guillermo Suarez, the building's superintendent, according to The Huffington Post. "Very mellow and very lonely."

Johnson was always wearing brown suit every day and never had visitors, according to Guillermo Suarez, 72, who works as the building superintendent at Johnson’s home on the Upper East Side, according to The Wall Street Journal.

“At 8:30 a.m. every single day he goes to McDonald’s, he comes back, he goes upstairs and that’s the end of that one,” Suarez said.
“I was standing right here. He said good morning,” he said of Friday morning. “I didn’t see him come back.”

Johnson had two cats in his second-floor apartment, according to Gisela Casella, 72, who lives in the same building. The suspect would greet Casella and pet her dog when they came across each other in the morning.

“I never talked to him, really,” Casella recalled. “Very quiet, never talked.”

“I would see him every morning all dressed up,” she said.

“I thought he went to work every day. I didn’t know he was unemployed.”

Johnson once attended the well-regarded Ringling School of Art & Design, according to his LinkedIn page.

He also owned his own T-shirt design company named St. Jolly T-Shirt Co.