ORANGE PARK – Chandler Garza said when he went to work Monday in the industrial loop, it seemed like a normal day until a co-worker left during the lunch hour and returned with a semi-automatic handgun.

“I was running the saw to get the slabs out and I just heard a loud pop,” Garza said.

Garza described the shooter, James Cameau, 34, a resident of the Astoria Hotel on Park Avenue, as “kind of a quiet guy.” Cameau had worked at Jacksonville Granite at 124 Industrial Loop West for about a month. As the investigation unfolded March 7, the Clay County Sheriff’s Office found that Cameau entered the back of the building and began pointing a .22-caliber semi-automatic handgun at his 11 co-workers at point blank range before later taking his own life.

“I thought a slab fell over and was broke initially and then I turned around and saw him with the gun. I thought it was a cap gun at that point and then he started pointing it at people telling them to run, so I knew to run at that point,” said Garza, the cousin of the lone victim in the shooting, Dean William Hagins Jr., 26, of Orange Park.

Hagins was able to run to a neighborhood on Balsa Court to the west of the industrial loop and call for help. He was transported to Orange Park Medical Center where, officials said, he is recovering. CCSO officials received the first 911 call at 12:04 p.m. and deputies – along with the Orange Park Police Department – responded within six minutes.

“It was a terrifying experience. First, I just wanted to know if it was a real gun or not. After that, I just wanted to get out,” Garza said.

Garza said he was able to the flee the building along with his co-workers and get to safety. CCSO investigators found Cameau had shot inside the front passenger seat of Jacksonville Granite Owner Mike Rich’s vehicle, which was parked at the shop.

“He was able to shoot at the owner, striking the owner’s vehicle. At that point in time, we had units responding. Once our primary units got here, we go into an active shooter protocol. We had a response team enter the building and, at that point in time, we found our suspect barricaded in a closet where actually all of the security equipment is for that business,” said CCSO Undersheriff Craig Aldrich.

“[Cameau] was watching our response team and watching our response. Once our reactionary team got in the building, they learned that he had, in fact, killed himself with a self-inflicted gunshot wound.”

Aldrich described the scene as a “tragedy averted” as Cameau’s gun jammed twice allowing the would-be victims to flee to safety.

“It’s certainly a tragedy averted because at least two people that he was at point-blank range with could have lost their life, so the good Lord was looking down on them,” Aldrich said. “They’re very fortunate.”

While Garza said he has had a gun pointed at him at least once, this was different because it so unexpected. He and his co-workers were caught off guard.

“He seemed like a normal guy for the most part. I mean, he just showed up, did his work and went home and that was it. He wasn’t really one to make friends or anything, he was just doing his job,” Garza said.

Aldrich said investigators did not have a motive in the shooting and it was unclear whether Cameau had kept the gun at the Astoria Hotel or some place between his workplace and his room. He did not have a timeframe for how long Cameau was away from the building before returning with the gun.

“Essentially, when he confronted the employees who were at the back of the business working, he walked up to them and said, ‘You better run’ and fired a round and the gun did not discharge. Racked another round into the weapon, [pointed the gun] at another employee and the gun did not fire again, did it a third time, the gun finally worked and that’s when he started shooting at each employee that were still running and fleeing that particular area that they were in.” Aldrich said.

Cameu had no prior felony record in Clay County, but was arrested in 2006 for DUI in Jacksonville.