17 seconds of terror in government office shooting

WASHINGTON -- The Homeland Security Department missed clear warning signs of a disgruntled federal agent's descent toward violence and could have intervened before he started a deadly gun battle inside a government office building in southern California, according to a confidential, internal investigation obtained by The Associated Press.

The government's investigation, which started nearly a year after the shootings and took 18 months, revealed new details about the private life of the dead supervisory agent, Ezequiel "Zeke" Garcia, 45, and clarified how the February 2012 gunfight unfolded inside the Long Beach offices of U.S. Homeland Security Investigations.

Garcia died from a gunshot to the back of his head.

An unarmed senior regional manager, Kevin Kozak, suffered serious wounds to his hands, abdomen, back and leg.

Garcia's supervisor, Perry Woo, killed Garcia after Garcia started shooting -- firing 23 rounds from his service pistol in 17 seconds -- without warning during a disciplinary meeting.

Garcia reloaded and resumed firing during the shooting before Woo killed him.

The report offers an unusual glimpse behind factors that drove one of the most sensational instances in recent years of workplace violence, which kills more than 700 Americans each year.

The AP obtained a censored copy of the 36-page report, which was marked "for official use only," five months after requesting it under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act.

Kozak, 54, who struggles with debilitating injuries and may lose his leg, filled in key details during an interview the Homeland Security Department discouraged him from granting.

"I never thought I'd have to defend myself in a secure office on a secure floor in a secure building," Kozak said. "Wow, was I wrong."

The government concluded Garcia was a walking advertisement for workplace intervention.

His previous supervisor, John Rocha, said Garcia told him the agency "had taken away from him everything that mattered" and said he had to "talk (Garcia) off the ledge every day in an effort to motivate him to work," the report said.

His estranged wife was so worried about ominous remarks by Garcia two days before the office shooting, she wrote them on an index card.

Garcia had been the subject of four sexual harassment complaints one year earlier, which later were substantiated, and he complained to coworkers his bosses were unfairly scrutinizing him to demote him after 21 years in federal law enforcement.