Fired Beach Worker Kills 5, Then Himself ‘Everyone Is Going To Die!’ Says Gunman Before Opening Fire

A man dismissed from his job on the city’s beach cleanup crew more than a year ago opened fire on former parks department co-workers before dawn Friday, killing five and critically wounding another.

He then fatally shot himself.

“Everyone is going to die!” announced Clifton McCree, 41, who then raised a 9mm handgun and shot several men who were sitting around a conference table in a temporary office.

Several of the victims were shot in the head, according to Fort Lauderdale police Capt. James Hurley, and others apparently were killed as they attempted to seek refuge under desks and chairs. Among those killed was McCree’s former supervisor.

McCree’s final statement was reported to Fort Lauderdale police by a man who survived the slaughter by playing dead after he was wounded.

A female employee escaped death when she bolted out the back door after walking into the office while McCree was firing at her co-workers. She ran across the street to a convenience store to dial 911. Police said that the gunman may have fired at her as she fled.

According to police, McCree had worked for the city for 18 years, most recently on the beach maintenance crew, before being fired in December 1994 for using drugs on the job, threatening co-workers and being rude to the public.

City manager George Hanbury said that when he was fired, McCree refused counseling. “He thought there was nothing wrong with him,” said Hanbury, adding that McCree dismissed as “jokes” the threats he had made to co-workers.

After he was fired, McCree “made threats to come back and do things, come back and kill everybody,” according to a city employee who identified himself only as Doug.

Police recovered two guns at the scene, including the semiautomatic handgun used in the slayings and a loaded .32-caliber pistol that McCree carried in a shoulder holster under his jacket. Also found at the scene were an empty 10-round magazine, a partly loaded magazine and 12 spent shell casings, police said.

Hurley said that McCree also left a “relatively coherent” suicide note.

The crime scene is just two blocks from the heart of a Fort Lauderdale beach that once was the mecca for college students on spring break.