NEW YORK—Jeffrey Johnson hid behind a car in his business suit and tie near the Empire State Building, waiting for the man he blamed for costing him his job. He put a gun to the executive’s head and fired five times, then walked off with his briefcase into the morning rush of midtown Manhattan.

Minutes later, Johnson was dead in front of the landmark skyscraper, killed by police Friday in a chaotic confrontation that wounded nine other people, sent bullets ricocheting and left sidewalks near one of the world’s best-known landmarks spattered with blood.

About a dozen people ran for their lives, including two small children who were just feet away from Johnson. He pointed the gun at the officers, who quickly fired at him.

Johnson dropped his briefcase, fell to his knees and then collapsed on the ground.

The bystanders were likely hit by police officers’ stray gunfire, some of them bullets that rebounded off of planters. The two officers fired 16 shots, but police believe Johnson only pointed the gun at them and didn’t fire, investigators said.

Startled New Yorkers looked up from their morning routines in the crowded business district to see people sprawled in the streets bleeding and a tarp covering the body in front of the tourist landmark.

“I was on the bus and people were yelling, ‘Get down, get down,” said accountant Marc Engel. “I was thinking, ‘You people are crazy, no one is shooting in the middle of midtown Manhattan at 9 o’clock in the morning.’ ”

It was over in seconds he said — “a lot of pop, pop, pop, pop, one shot after the other.” Afterwards he saw sidewalks littered with the wounded, including one man “dripping enough blood to leave a stream.”

Johnson, 58, whom neighbours had seen leave his apartment in a suit every day since he was laid off a year ago — often returning with breakfast from McDonald’s — had worked for six years for Hazan Imports and was let go when the company downsized, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said.

Police were looking into his relationship with the victim, Steven Ercolino, the company’s vice-president of sales, who had traded accusations of harassment with Johnson when he worked there. Johnson also blamed Ercolino for his layoff, saying that he hadn’t aggressively marketed Johnson’s new T-shirt line, police spokesman Paul Browne said.

After waiting for Ercolino, 41, to come to work, Johnson walked up to him, pulled out a .45-calibre pistol and fired at his head, Kelly said. After he fell to the ground, Johnson stood over him and shot four more times, a witness told investigators.

“Jeffrey just came from behind two cars, pulled out his gun, put it up to Steve’s head and shot him,” said Carol Timan, whose daughter, Irene, was walking to Hazan Imports at the time with Ercolino.

A construction worker who saw the shooting followed Johnson and alerted two police officers, a detail regularly assigned to patrol city landmarks like the 443-metre skyscraper since the Sept. 11 terror attacks, officials said.

Johnson pulled his gun out of his briefcase and pointed it; and the officers drew their weapons and fired 16 rounds, police said.

“These officers, having looked at the tape myself, had absolutely no choice,” Kelly said.

“When the public sees the video that we’re going to put out, the officers have a gun right in their face,” the commissioner said at a briefing later Friday. “They responded, they responded quickly, and they responded appropriately.”

A witness had told police that Johnson fired at the officers, but authorities say ballistics evidence so far doesn’t support that. Johnson’s .45-calibre weapon held seven rounds, they said. He fired five times at Ercolino, one round was still in the gun and one was ejected when officers secured it, authorities said.

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Another loaded magazine was found in Johnson’s briefcase.

Johnson legally bought the gun in Sarasota, Fla., in 1991, but he didn’t have a required permit to possess the weapon in New York City, police said.

“New York City, as you know, is the safest big city in the country, and we are on pace to have a record low number of murders this year,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said. “But we are not immune to the national problem of gun violence,” he said of the shooting, following mass shootings in Colorado and Wisconsin.

The wounded victims were five women and four men, aged 20 to 56, authorities said. All were from New York City, except a 35-year-old woman from Chapel Hill, N.C. They suffered graze wounds or other minor injuries.

Ercolino was a gregarious salesman who had followed his father into the garment industry, then later worked in women’s handbags and accessories, said his brother, Paul Ercolino.

“He was in the prime of his life,” he said, and had never mentioned to the family that he had any problems with a co-worker.

Hazan Import Corp. imports women’s clothing and accessories, according to public records. Calls to its executives weren’t immediately returned.

Johnson’s neighbours said he often seemed to be alone. Internet records list him as administrator of the website for a business called St. Jolly’s Art, which sold iron-on art for T-shirts, including stylized drawings of fighter planes, muscle cars and ships.

Johnson was also part of a community of bird watchers and photographers who document hawks and other wildlife living in Central Park, a few blocks from his home. In an email to another bird watcher, who works at The Associated Press, Johnson wrote tenderly about spending a winter night watching ducks in the park.

“Near midnight by the Harlem Meer I watched a little ‘flotilla’ of Mallards swimming and softly honking . . . fifteen degree (9 C) temp and they were carrying on unfazed. Just remarkable,” he wrote.