SANTA CLARA — The active shooter taken down Saturday by Santa Clara police was a longtime employee of the locally owned Rotten Robbie gas station chain whose actions came from “out of the blue,” according to the company’s CEO.

The man, who had not been identified as of Sunday afternoon, was shot and killed by police after setting fire to the Rotten Robbie station in Cupertino, where he worked, and then “shooting indiscriminately” at people and passing cars at another Rotten Robbie station in Santa Clara.

Tom Robinson, CEO of the Rotten Robbie chain, said Saturday evening that he has no idea why the man appears to have snapped.

“The fact that he did damage at two different locations, he must have had something going on that was negative about the company,” Robinson said. “But we don’t know what the grudge was. He hadn’t been terminated or disciplined or anything like that, as far as I know. It seems to be out of the blue.”

Police Capt. Wahid Kazem said Sunday that the investigation would delve into the man’s background. “I’m sure there’s going to be more questions that will be asked as far as intent and what could have possibly happened in this man’s life to lead to such a devastating incident.”

Rotten Robbie is a chain of 34 gas stations, some with convenience stores, like the Santa Clara location, and others without, like the Cupertino station at 19030 Stevens Creek Blvd. Most are in the Bay Area. The company is owned by Robinson Oil, a fourth-generation family business based in Santa Clara.

“It’s very sad, very tragic,” Robinson said. “I’m relieved that no employees, no customers, no police, or anyone from the public were harmed. It’s sad.”

Robinson said that the man had worked for the company for about 20 years, most recently as assistant manager at the Cupertino station. He opened the station around 5 a.m., and started the fire, which caused “a significant amount of damage” before a customer noticed smoke and called the fire department, he said.

At about 5:42 a.m., dispatchers received calls of a suspect “indiscriminately shooting in the parking lot and inside the store,” located at 3471 Lafayette St., in Santa Clara.

When officers arrived, they could hear the suspect, a 55-year-old San Jose resident, shooting inside the store. They were able to shoot the man without entering the store and he died at the scene, Kazem said.

Initial reports indicated that several people had been hurt, but ultimately no bystanders, police or employees of the store were harmed, Kazem said.

“Honestly, I don’t know how we became so fortunate to not have any casualties, because of the reckless nature in which this person was shooting,” Kazem said. “He was armed heavily, he had additional ammunition with him, and he was obviously intent on hurting or killing innocent civilians.”

After speaking with company employees and supervisors, Robinson said that he is unaware of anything that the man may have done beforehand indicating that he was about to take violent action.

“A number of us are having that conversation,” Robinson said. “He’s not a short-term employee. He’s been around a long time. He was an outgoing, very personable person. I don’t know. I don’t have any good answers for something like this. We’ve never had an incident like this.”

Robinson said the man was fishing on Friday with another employee.

“They said nothing seemed wrong with him,” he said. “We’re all shocked.”

The episode is being investigated jointly by Santa Clara Police and the Santa Clara County District Attorney. Anyone with information about the encounter is asked to contact Sgt. Alex Torke at 408-615-4806.