The Home Depot employee who fatally shot a supervisor in Chelsea yesterday afternoon before killing himself may have been exacting revenge for his recent firing. A witness told the Post that she heard one of the men scream "Fuck you!" before the 31-year-old employee shot his 38-year-old manager, hitting him in the stomach and the chest.
“Just as I turned the corner I hear boom, boom, boom and boom,” Howard Mash, told the News. Mash was shopping for lightbulbs with his wife at around 2:45 p.m. when the he heard gunshots. “At first I thought somebody dropped a box of light bulbs, but the noise was so loud.”
“There was this sheer panic," Alexandra Pelosi told the tabloid. Pelosi, the daughter of Congresswoman and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, happened to be shopping when the shooting broke out. "People on the floor crying and praying, it was this pure panic,” Pelosi said. “People were hiding under desks.”
The employee, who is being identified in reports as Calvin Esdaile Jr., then shot himself in the head. Police found a .38 caliber handgun next to his body.
“I heard that Calvin had gotten fired a few days ago. But I didn’t think it would come to this. All this over a job? I can’t believe it," a former coworker told the Post.
Esdaile's father expressed disbelief to the News: “If it’s him, I’m sorry about this thing, and I’m sorry someone has to die by his hand. It’s a shock to me. I don’t know of him having a violent history. He liked his job. He was always telling me, ‘I’m going to work.' "
Esdaile's victim, who is being identified in reports as Moctar Sy, just returned from France, where his wife and child reside.
“[The manager] was cool, he was very likeable," the former employee told the Post. "He was such a funny guy. He never had any problems with anybody. I can’t see him starting any confrontations."
