Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 11, 1995 TAG: 9503130056
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: ARLINGTON LENGTH: Medium
Ernest J. Cooper Jr. of Waldorf, Md., twice shot a young superior, Nils F. ``Fred'' Salvesen, after a confrontation at Salvesen's desk, police said. Cooper, 58, immediately turned to the next cubicle in the cramped Navy office and fired at Navy Cmdr. Harry F. Molyneux, hitting him four times.
Cooper then pointed the .45-caliber semiautomatic handgun at his head and fired once, police said.
``All of a sudden there were noises, gunfire,'' said Dorinda Schutte, who was a few feet away when the shooting began in their 10th-floor office at the Naval Air Systems Command.
She said she heard no shouting before the shots.
``This was a total surprise.''
Salvesen, 30, of Annapolis, Md., and Molyneux, 39, of Alexandria, were flown to Washington Hospital Center, where Salvesen underwent surgery. He was in critical condition with wounds in the neck and left side. Molyneux was in fair condition with wounds to his right shoulder, left side, left arm and hand.
Cooper, a logistics expert who had worked at the command since 1986, was pronounced dead on arrival at National Orthopedic Hospital in Arlington.
The shooting came about 8 a.m. as most employees were beginning their work day at the command, which is located in the Crystal City office complex.
``We were pouring coffee,'' said another woman who said she worked in the same large office but did not give her name.
``They all work together, and they apparently had some argument this morning - we're not sure over what,'' Arlington police spokesman Tom Bell said. ``And one guy just went berserk.''
Schutte said she knew of no longstanding trouble between the two, but another co-worker said the argument between Salvesen and Cooper was apparently a continuation of a disagreement the two had Thursday. It was not clear whether Cooper brought the gun to work with him Friday or whether the weapon was already hidden in his desk.
Guns are not allowed inside the building, which has no metal detectors, said Marine Brig. Gen. Joseph Anderson, who oversees the facility.
Salvesen, a program manager in the Air Combat Electronics Program Office, has worked at the command since 1987. Molyneux is a deputy program manager who has been at the command since 1991.
Cooper, an Air Force retiree, worked for both men.
``Ernie was a nice man,'' Schutte said. ``All of them all nice people, helpful, supportive of each other.''
Neither Schutte nor her Navy superiors would comment on whether Cooper's job had been threatened.
The Navy plans to move the entire Air Systems office to a base at Patuxent River, Md., in 1997 as part of the national base closing and realignment effort.
Keywords:
FATALITY
by CNB