BRYAN, Texas — A family-owned business near the scene of a mass shooting in Bryan, Texas, is in shock after Thursday’s shooting.
Rik Mar Fabricators, a metal contracting company and family-owned business in Bryan for 40 years, shared its security camera footage exclusively with Spectrum News 1 from the moments after the shooting. It’s right next door to Kent Moore Cabinets, where a gunman opened fire, killing one and injuring several others on Thursday, April 8.
“We’ve been in business since 1977, we’ve been in this location since 1981," said Vincent Neal.
He has worked with his dad for decades running their metal contracting company. On Thursday, Neal left the warehouse to make a delivery.
“I checked our surveillance camera, left about 2:27," said Neal. "When I was on the way back, my guys call me, say ‘hey you want me to get back in, there's been some problems over here.’”
There had been a shooting at Kent Moore Cabinets, in which one person was left dead and several others injured. Some Kent Moore employees ran into Rik Mar’s warehouse and office seeking safety.
“There were seven of them in the office and two or three of them went through my shop and went to the back. And my dad was in there by himself so he's—it kind of shook him up a little bit," said Neal. "Those poor guys were—they were shook up. Here they're wanting to use a phone, 'Can I call my family?' Stuff like that so that was that just, that's a terrible, terrible deal.”
It was a few hours before police let Neal back to Rik Mar to check on his dad and his employees. That’s when he decided to check his security cameras.
“We've got a couple on the front of the office and that's the one I was really kind of looking at because I could see them congregating in the middle of a driveway right here," said Neal.
He agreed to share the footage with Spectrum News 1 Texas, including the moments Kent Moore employees fled to safety.
“That's my truck leaving at 14:28," said Neal, looking at footage from just two minutes before the first 911 calls came in reporting the shooting. “Here you see them coming down from, from Kent Moore. They're coming, coming into my office right now….Okay, my dad, he's got his phone out, he's—he's already started calling 911," said Neal.
The footage documents the precise timeline of the tragedy. For Neal it hits too close to home.
“I go to church with some people that work over there. I do some work for those people, I know some guys in there," said Neal. "They're going to be affected by, you know, for a long time and it's going to be something that, you know, they're not gonna get over next week or week after next.”
As law enforcement’s investigation continues, he hopes it brings some answers, but there’s still a sense of disbelief.
“Things like that don't happen, you know, in Bryan, College Station," said Neal.
According to the Bryan Police Department, the suspect is in custody and in addition to the murder charge, is facing five counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Officials said they believe the suspect to be an employee of Kent Moore Cabinets.
A lieutenant with the Bryan Police Department said 911 calls started coming in at around 2:30 p.m. reporting the shooting, and by the time officers arrived the suspect had left the scene in a car.
The police and other law enforcement agencies began a manhunt for the suspect.
Later in the evening, according to the Department of Public Safety, one of their troopers was shot by the suspect while trying to take him into custody after a chase in Grimes County.
That trooper was taken to a hospital in Bryan where doctors operated on him, and he is now in stable condition.
Police said they don’t know the suspect's motive at this time.