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Man kills boss, self in Dallas office building; names released

A man entered a Dallas office building, shot a woman dead and then killed himself Monday morning, police revealed in an afternoon news conference. 

The two people who were found shot to death inside a meeting room inside a Dallas office tower Monday morning have been identified.

According to police, 60-year-old Matthew Kempf entered the office building off the Lyndon B. Johnson Freeway near US-75 and shot his boss, 48-year-old Lana Claudine McAree. Kempf then turned the gun on himself.

Police said McAree was recently married. Her married name is Lana Canada.

"All of a sudden we heard gunshots fired above us,” said Bill Humsden, who ran out of the building after hearing the shocking sounds.

<p>First responders at the scene of a shooting at a Dallas office building Monday. Photo: Ashlee Bailey</p>

The incident began at about 10:10 a.m. Monday and people inside the building were asked to evacuate at about 10:30 a.m., said Shawn Harber, who was among those evacuated.

The shooting occurred on the seventh floor of the office building. Images captured at the scene showed one window broken on the same floor of the building.

"I was unloading material on the dock of the building," said Jacob A. Cathey of when he first heard the violence breakout. "[I] heard glass break above me and heard gunshots. I ran inside and got to the seventh floor. I cleared the surrounding rooms of civilians and went back towards the shooter's last known location. Heard another gunshot as I was approaching the hallway. Didn't know how many more rounds the suspect had so I waited until Dallas PD arrived on scene."

Photos: Shooting at Dallas office building

Unsure how many shooters there were, Humsden said he was on alert as he fled the building.

“Hopefully they're not going to come out of stairwell behind us," he said. "We didn't know what to think."

As some ran from the building, others sheltered in place.

“We were just trapped in a closet, basically barricaded ourselves in and heard gunshots," said another witness.

According to co-workers, McAree and Kempf worked together before at another business. Kempf was employed at the new location for only a month when the shooting occurred.

“It’s a terrible thing to go through," said Cathy Crow, who works in the office building. "What is wrong with the world? Why can’t people talk things out? Why can’t they work things out? Why does everything have to end up with a gun?”

<p>A shooting occurred at an office building in the 8300 block of LBJ Freeway in Dallas Monday</p>

At about 10:45 a.m., police responded to the call of an active shooter.

Witnesses told responding officers that the armed man was inside a locked meeting room, said Assistant Chief Randy Blankenbaker, with the investigation bureau of the Dallas Police Department.

"Officers were forced to utilize a shotgun to breach the front office door," he said.

Blankenbaker said he believes that was the only shot fired by Dallas police.

"One of the officers suffered minor injuries from broken glass during entry into the office," Blankenbaker said. "That officer was transported to a local hospital for treatment."

Once inside the room, officers discovered the bodies of a female and male.

"We believe the male shot the female and then killed himself," he said.

Authorities haven't released the identities of the victim or the shooter but said the female was his supervisor. WFAA learned the woman was a mother of seven who recently remarried.

According to Blankenbaker, SWAT officers went floor by floor to ensure there were no other suspects and cleared the building by 12:49 p.m.

An investigation into the motive behind the shooting is underway.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 39 employees were victims of homicide - and 600 lost work time - as a result of intentional injury by another person in Texas in 2014. The United States Department of Labor says homicide is the fourth-leading cause of fatal occupational injuries in the U.S.

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