Alan Winterborne | Murderpedia, the encyclopedia of murderers

Alan Winterbourne wanted a job and even ran for Congress partly because the pay looked good.

But his job search evolved into a long battle with bureaucracy, and it ended Thursday in a shooting rampage at a state unemployment office that left him, three state employees and a police officer dead.

The police said today that they were uncertain what set off Mr. Winterbourne, who was 33. They were reviewing documents he had left at a newspaper just 30 minutes before the attack in which he went into detail about his seven-year search for work.

"We've got thousands of things to look at," said David Keith, an Oxnard police spokesman. "Our first review of those documents reveals nothing that gives us insight as to motive."

Workers Singled Out

Mr. Winterbourne, armed with a pistol and a shotgun, walked into a local office of the California Employment Development Department just before noon on Thursday and opened fire. He singled out workers, witnesses said.

Mr. Winterbourne fled in a car after a brief shootout with the police. In the pursuit, he killed an Oxnard police officer and was later killed by the police outside another unemployment office in nearby Ventura, when he emerged from his car carrying a gun. Five other people were wounded, one by police bullets.

The police seized two rifles besides the shotgun and pistol. Mr. Winterbourne had no record of arrests, Mr. Keith said.

Avelina Villalobos, the employment department's office manager in Oxnard, said she did not remember seeing Mr. Winterbourne in the office before the shooting. Asked if any of the victims had worked with him, she said, "To my knowledge, nobody had anything to do with him."

'Tell Us the Reason Why'

Flowers and cards piled up today outside the bullet-marked entrance to the office, which was closed for the day. One handwritten note on a red poinsettia read: "We have comfort in God. We know He took four people home. Please tell us the reason why."

A half-hour before the rampage, Mr. Winterbourne left documents with The Ventura Star-Free Press detailing his search for work. He said he would call later to discuss them with an editor.

Among the documents were job applications and 288 letters to every major employer in the county.

Mr. Winterbourne had been unemployed since 1986 after resigning as a computer engineer for the Northrop Corporation, citing an inability to adapt to a change in assignment. Six months after quitting, he filed for unemployment benefits at the Oxnard office, but his application was denied after Northrop said he had left voluntarily.

The envelope left at the newspaper included a transcript of his appeal to an administrative law judge on Dec. 3, 1986. Mr. Winterbourne told the judge he quit Northrop, where he worked on a missile contract, out of fear for his personal safety, but could not elaborate because of Government secrecy.

In 1990 he lost a Republican primary contest to Robert J. Lagamarsino, then an incumbent Congressman representing California's 19th Congressional District. Mr. Winterbourne said before the primary that he was attracted by a Congressman's salary of more than $100,000. "I think it would be a good job," he said.