The perpetrator of the shooting, 36-year-old Mexican-born Salvador Tapia, was fired from the company in March 2003 for "ten different reasons," including frequently showing up late to work and often missing entire days.

[1][3][4] Tapia had an extensive criminal record, including a 1989 conviction for unlawful use of a weapon and numerous arrests for threatening and assaulting his family, girlfriends, and a neighbor.

[3] Tapia returned to his former workplace around 8:30 a.m. on August 27, 2003, and tied employee Eduardo Sanchez to a metal bar at gunpoint, telling him that he would not kill him and that he was going to "make these people pay."

[2][3] As law enforcement arrived at the scene, Tapia went outside and fired three shots at them before going back inside the building and emerging to exchange gunfire a second time.

[6] A Greyhound bus ticket and several handwritten notes in Spanish were found in Tapia's pockets, which contained vague threats to his girlfriends and were described by investigators as "cryptic" and "difficult to decipher."