BEN BRASCH, and Stacey Henson

The News-Press

This story was originally published June 6, 2016, and has been changed to reflect that Moran acquired the shotgun from the Mazda.

Chris Flaker still has no idea how he got his neighbor to put the shotgun on the ground. The same shotgun that was in his face seconds earlier.

The same shotgun his neighbor sped off with before starting a shooting rampage 15 minutes later that left two people dead on a stormy Sunday night in Cape Coral.

"I didn't know he'd take that gun and go kill two people," Flaker said. "That's the part that I'm having the problem processing."

His 31-year-old neighbor Christopher Michael Moran was shot and killed by officers about an hour later armed and "violently resisting" arrest, according to the Cape Coral Police Department, who identified him as their suspect Monday night.

Moran has no history of a violent criminal activity in Lee County, according to court and jail records. He received three traffic violations dating back to 2007. Moran was booked into Lee County Jail in January 2014 on a charge of DUI causing property damage and was listed as living at a Lehigh Acres address.

The identities of his two victims from Sunday's bloodshed have not been released nor have police discussed a possible motive.

"We are still endeavoring to make next of kin notifications," Sgt. Dana Coston, spokesman with Cape Coral police, wrote in an email. "We are having to rely on resources from outside the area for assistance."

Flaker said Moran approached him in the parking lot of their SE 8th Terrace apartment complex about 5:30 p.m. Sunday.

Moran claimed that he and his girlfriend along with their 1-year-old child had been abducted earlier, Flaker said. Moran accused Flaker of aiding in the alleged abduction. When Flaker dismissed the claims, Moran walked to a red Mazda and grabbed the shotgun.

Moran's girlfriend implored — "Chris! Don’t! Chris! Let’s go!" — and Flaker reminded him that the child was nearby, so Moran lowered the gun.

Then Flaker asked him if the gun was real.

"Do you want to find out what's real?" Moran said as he pointed the shotgun in his face.

Flaker pleaded with him, trying to connect with him because they share the same first name, and Moran dropped the gun.

Flaker walked back up to his apartment to tell his roommate that there's a madman with a gun in their parking lot. Moran along with his girlfriend and the baby sped away in the Mazda.

Flaker didn't have a clue that his ordeal would be the least bloody of the night.

"We have our own issues going on and hell’s breaking loose on the other side of the Cape," he said.

Chaos in Cape Coral: 3 dead after shootings

Hell breaking loose

A total of 15 minutes and 3 miles separated Moran putting the gun down at the apartment and shooting a motorcyclist to death at 26th Street Southwest and Skyline Boulevard.

Sandra Noah may not know who she saw, but she knows what she saw.

The 70-year-old retired special education teacher from suburban Chicago lives adjacent to where the motorcyclist was killed and said her family is considering moving from the area.

Her grandson, Joey Vela, 5, was returning from Home Depot with his dad when they saw the emergency crews on the scene. Joey wanted to go watch his heroes in action, thinking it was one of the regular auto accidents at the corner. She told him they'd go by as they went to McDonald's for dinner.

What We Know: Cape Coral shootings

When she saw the motorcyclist's body covered by a sheet, she got Joey looking elsewhere and headed into the adjacent 7-Eleven.

From there, Moran arrived at the Circle K at the intersection of Chiquita Boulevard and Cape Coral Parkway West about 45 minutes later.

Richard Huwiler had a brief moment where he thought something about a fellow customer looked "weird" as he waited for a Circle K clerk to grab his cigarettes from a display.

The errand turned deadly when Moran told a second clerk "'That's bullshit!' And then bang," Huwiler recounted in front of his Cape Coral home Monday afternoon. "I thought it was a balloon bursting."

Huwiler said the clerk fell to the floor, fatally shot in the face. The gunman took a step and paused next to a mother in line, her child in a stroller beside her.

The mother said, "I've got the kid," Huwiler said. The gunman then took aim at him, cocking the shotgun.

"I had 2 seconds to duck down," he said. "There was stuff flying all over. My hand hurt, hurt bad. The other cashier was screaming. I was bleeding bad."

An Army veteran, Huwiler's instinct likely saved his life. "If he had a rifle, I'd be dead," he said.

He credited the remaining clerk with keeping calm and calling the police in the aftermath. As she was on the phone, they saw the gunman had left his wallet and identification on the counter and relayed the information to the 911 dispatcher. Huwiler, bleeding from his numerous wounds, checked the clerk who'd been shot.

"He was hit in the side of his face, point-blank," he said.

Riddled with buck shot, Huwiler has entry wounds scattered throughout his body: the nape of his neck, shoulder to fingertip, and the top of his inner right thigh.

"Most of the blood was mine," he said. "My biggest fear was that he'd come back and shoot again."

Huwiler said he declined treatment at the scene, and later went to the emergency room with his wife. His hand, at the base of the thumb, has a simple bandage covering the worst wound, pellets embedded. Doctors say he's got tissue damage, and he has to see a specialist in the coming days.

The third and final shooting scene is the one with the fewest details.

All that police have said is that the last shooting was four minutes after the Circle K shooting, Moran was armed when police confronted him, he violently resisted and was shot. Two passengers in his car were injured in the shooting and were hospitalized. No information about their condition has been released.

Huwiler said he moved from New Port Richey two years ago.

"I moved to the safest city in Florida," he said, his voice tinged with sarcasm.

Before Sunday, there had been one homicide in Cape Coral in 2016. In 2015, there were none.

"We still live in one of the safest communities in the state of Florida," Councilman Richard Leon told The News-Press. "These incidents do happen."

"The suspect was eventually put down," Leon said.

The councilman said he found out about the shooting when the city manager's office called him.

"My prayers go out to the family and it’s unfortunate and you don’t ever want to see that happen in our city," he said. "With our species, it does happen."

He commended the hard work of the emergency staff who got the situation under control.

"We’re still a safe community, our police department did an excellent job," Leon said. "This is the time that the community comes together and stands together not only to mourn the loss of what took place but to say we don’t stand for this."

Connect with this reporter on Twitter, @ben_brasch. Michael Braun, breaking news reporter at The News-Press, contributed to this story.

How the Cape Coral shootings unfolded on social media

The numbers

According to the Cape Coral Police Department there have been 11 officer-involved shootings in the past 6½ years. Seven of those occurred between December 2009 and September 2015. The last four officer involved shootings have occurred within the past 7 months.

♦Officer-involved shootings in Cape Coral the last seven years♦

► 2009 - 1

► 2010 - 0

► 2011 - 4

► 2012 - 0

► 2013 - 2

► 2014 - 0

► 2015 – 1

► 2016 – 3

♦A decade of Cape Coral homicides♦

As for homicides over the past decade, Cape Coral's bloodiest year was 2007 with seven homicides. Before Sunday, there had been one homicide in Cape Coral this year.

► 2006 - 6

► 2007 - 5

► 2008 - 7

► 2009 - 3

► 2010 - 3

► 2011 - 3

► 2012 - 4

► 2013 - 3

► 2014 - 4

► 2015 - 0