A shooting at a St. Louis business has left four dead in what authorities are describing as a murder-suicide. A storefront business incubator that houses 10 small businesses was the location of the shooting, where an argument between people inside one of the offices erupted in gunfire. Two men and two women were killed.
Police say that 59 year-old Ahmed Dirir was having an argument with employees at one of the offices when he opened fire and killed Khadra Muse, Seaeed Abdulla, and Bernice Solomon Redd. Dirir is believed to be the owner of the business, and after killing the other three, turned his semi-automatic handgun on himself before he could be apprehended.
Surveillance footage shows Dirir engaged in a short argument with the employees of AK Home Healthcare, which subsides before the shots were fired. It is not known what the argument was about, or whether it began prior to the violence or was carried over from a separate incident.
Witnesses in and near the building say they heard gunshots and saw people running out of the building. Those killed were the only ones in the office, and no one outside the office was injured in the shooting. The building was quickly evacuated. Police have so far been unable to find any witnesses who directly saw the shooting or the preceding events.
The Huffington Post reports that Michael Graff, who runs a law office in the building where the shooting took place, said that the shooter and his employees were Somalian immigrants, and that they regularly got into heated arguments.
Image Credit: Flickr / MBK (Marjie)