Co-worker says he thought Virginia Beach gunman was part of routine drill

"I heard couple of people screaming that there was a shooter in the building," Carlstrom, an account clerk in the city's utilities department, said Saturday. "It didn't sound real – the shots were real muffled – and we thought it was a drill."

He and some co-workers began heading for the exit as instructed when he saw DeWayne Craddock, the man police have identified as the gunman who killed 11 city workers and a contractor.

"We passed by a gentleman that was carrying a gun in his hand, but it looked so theatrical because of the extended magazine and the suppressor that was on the end of it," Carlstrom said. "He glanced at me, but he never raised the gun at me to shoot me."

Craddock had been employed for 15 years as an engineer with the city's utilities department.

"I thought he was playing the part of an active shooter for our drill," Carlstrom said.

As he moved through the building, he said, he noticed bullet casings in the hallway, but he thought someone had just tossed them there to make the drill more realistic. Eventually, he and a co-worker locked themselves in an office and waited for police.

Police said Craddock used two .45-caliber handguns to carry out the attack, but they have declined to discuss a possible motive. Six of the victims worked in the utilities department, but investigators haven't said if anyone was targeted or if the suspect had threatened anyone previously.

"I never would have thought it in my whole life," Carlstrom said of Craddock carrying out a mass shooting. "Knowing him for the time that I've known him, one, I can't picture him with a gun, and two, I can't picture him doing any acts like that."

Authorities have said Craddock fired indiscriminately. At least three people who were wounded remained hospitalized Saturday.

Craddock, 40, was later killed in a gunfight with police.

Carlstrom said he doesn't know how he was able to escape the rampage unharmed.

"Maybe he viewed me as friendly because we've had conversations as we've walked into the building together," he said. "On occasion, we'd walk in together from the parking lot, and we'd carry on small talk. I don't know [why I wasn't shot]. I can't say."

Memorials grew outside the municipal building on Saturday as people stopped by to grieve and offer support to one another.

"I thought it was really important to support the people who lost their family members," Shelby Richardson said.

"The foundation of our community has been rocked with this," Virginia Beach Mayor Bobby Dyer said.

Dyer was trying to come to grips with several of his co-workers.

"I saw them every day, joked around with them, saw them outside, had lunch, [at the] vending machine. I knew them, and it's hard to believe," he said.

He is also mourning the loss of a friend – Bert Snelling, a contractor who officials say was in the building to get a permit.

"Genuine, great guy. Great family man," he said of Snelling.

Edward Weedon lost seven friends in the shooting. He was on the first floor at the time, and he soon saw Michelle Langer lying lifeless at the bottom of a staircase before running to safety.

"We heard pop, pop. It sounded like someone dropped a bookcase," Weedon said.

Brenda Flowers, who attended a Saturday vigil for the victims, called the shooting "pure evil."

Flowers and others say they know Virginia Beach will come together to move on from the tragedy.

"I have hope because I know evil doesn't triumph in the end," she said.