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Murder/Suicide in Times Square Office

NEW YORK- Sept. 16, 2002

Three people died Monday morning when a former FBI special agent fatally shot two fellow employees an insurance company two blocks south of Times Square, then turned a gun on himself, in what police said was an act of rage over a romatic relationship gone sour.

The gunman, identified as John Harrison, 53, an executive vice president in the fraud division of the Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield, called employees Vincent LaBianca, 33, and Isabel Munoz, 36, into his 11th -floor corner office, the police said. He then fired seveal rounds with two pistols, shooting LaBianca and Munoz in the face and body before pionting one of the guns in his mouth and firing, the police said.

A man who worked directly for Harrison but declined to give his last name said his boss had been in a bad mood recently.

"The last couple of weeks he's locked himself in his office," the man said.

Munoz, of Valley Streem on Long Island, had been romatically invovled with both men, police sources said. Harrison was married and resided in Mount Holly, NJ, police said.
They moved with the company to its new offices located at 1440 Broadway in December of last year. All three survived the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center, where Empire's offices had been located, the police said.

Police received the first 911 call regarding the shooting at 8:24 am. They arrived to find Harrison slumped against a wall, LaBianca in a chair, and Munoz on the floor, they said. All three were dead upon arrival.

The police Emergency Services Unit searched floor by floor, a move Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said was just procedure.

A .45 caliber Glock semi-automatic was found on the desk and an emptied 9 mm Smith & Wesson was lying on the floor.

FBI spokeswoman Sandra Carroll said Harrison was a special agent for 11 years until Oct. 13, 1989. Police reported LaBianca, of Old Bridge, NJ, was a former Port Authority police officer, but Port Authority spokesman Alan Hicks said LaBianca never worked for the agency.

Police shut down the building soon after arriving and closed two lanes on Broadway between 40st and 41st Streets. Building employees were kept inside. Pedestrians were shunted onto the opposite sidewalk and hundreds gathered to watch the scene. Many of the onlookers were stylishly dressed, as the building, in the fashion district, was occupied by a number of glamorous businesses, including Liz Claborne and Seventeen Magazine.

"I thought it was thunder," said Richard Restrepo, a 21-year-old electrician from Queens who was working two floors below the shooting. "I didn't think guns, but twenty minutes later we looked out the window and saw cops and thought maybe it was a bomb scare."

Margo Singleton was on her way to work in the accounting department of WOR Television on the 23rd floor when she saw the commotion. She said people looked panicked as they stood in the lobby. A woman was outside crying.

"I felt terror and thought it was some kind of terror attack," she said. "You just have to watch yourself when you see people coming out frantically."

After learning the event was an isolated shooting and not a terror attack, Singleton said she felt strangely relieved.

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