The US gunman who killed 12 people at a Virginia Beach municipal building before dying in a shootout with police has been identified as a disgruntled city engineer and co-worker of most of the victims.
All but one of the victims from Friday's mass shooting in the coastal resort community were employed by the city, officials said, while the other was a contractor seeking a permit. Four people were wounded.
The gunman, DeWayne Craddock, had worked for the city's public utilities department for about 15 years, Virginia Beach Police Chief James Cervera said at a news conference on Saturday.
He declined to comment on any possible motive.
"These are 12 individuals who came to work ... thinking they would go home in the evening, and they didn't return and it left a tremendous void in their families and in our community," Virginia Governor Ralph Northam said at a news conference.
Bodies were found on all three floors of the Virginia Beach building and in a car parked outside, according to authorities.
Mr Cervera described the crime scene as "horrific" and said investigators who spent the night inside the building endured a "physical, emotional and psychological toll".
Police said the gunman was armed with two .45 calibre pistols and used an employee pass to enter secure areas before firing "immediately and indiscriminately" on victims while reloading with multiple extended ammunition magazines.
At least one of the pistols was fitted with a "sound suppressor", police said.
Both handguns were bought legally by the shooter within the past three years, Ashan Benedict, a special agent at the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, told the news conference.
Two more firearms were found at the home where Craddock lived alone, he said.
After the attack began, two police supervisors from a building across the street arrived within minutes, Mr Cervera said, and they were quickly joined by two police dog-handlers.
The suspect was killed after a lengthy gun battle.
The victims who worked for Virginia Beach had been employed for between 11 months and 41 years.
Six worked in the public utilities department and five were employed in the public works department.
A number of vigils and commemorations are planned, including a memorial service the city is organising for Thursday evening.
The bloodshed unfolded at Building Two of the municipal centre complex on Friday afternoon as workers prepared to leave for the weekend.
Some survivors recounted how they cowered in fear after stacking desks against office doors as makeshift barricades.
Three of the wounded victims were in critical condition and a fourth was in fair condition at local hospitals, said Julie Hill, a spokeswoman for Virginia Beach.
A police officer who was shot but saved by his ballistic vest has been treated and released, she said.
Mr Cervera said he would only name the gunman once, and hereafter refer to him just as "the suspect".
According to local media, Craddock was 40 years old and had no serious criminal record.
He served in the Virginia National Guard from 1996 to 2002, and was assigned to a Norfolk-based battalion as a cannon crew member, a guard spokesman said, adding that Craddock's records do not indicate any overseas deployments.
Mr Cervera said 40 agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation are recovering evidence at the crime scene, which lies in a complex of office buildings several kilometres inland from the town's popular seashore, situated on the Atlantic coast at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay.
'Surreal'
The building where the shooting took place in Virginia Beach - a city of 450,000 people about 320km southeast of Washington - housed the city's public works and utilities offices and can have 400 people inside at any time.
"This is the most devastating day in the history of Virginia Beach," Mayor Bobby Dyer told reporters.
"The people involved are our friends, co-workers, neighbours and colleagues."
Megan Banton, a public utilities employee, told local television station WVEC that during the chaos she and about 20 coworkers hid in an office, where they used a desk to wedge the door shut.
"We just wanted to try to keep everybody safe as much as we could and just trying to stay on the phone with 911, just because we wanted to make sure (police) were coming. They couldn't come fast enough," she said, adding that it felt like "hours."
"We heard gunshots. We kept hearing gunshots and we kept hearing the cops saying, 'Get down.'"
Banton said it felt "surreal" to have a mass shooting in her office building, and having survived it she just wanted to go home and hug her family.
"I have an 11-month-old baby at home and all I could think about was him and trying to make it home to him," she said.
150th mass shooting
President Donald Trump had been briefed on the shooting and was monitoring the situation, the White House said.
According to the Washington-based Gun Violence Archive monitoring group, Friday's shooting was the 150th mass shooting in the United States this year, defined as a single event in which four or more people are shot or killed.
Despite the scale of gun violence across the nation, gun ownership laws are lax and efforts to address the issue legislatively have long been deadlocked at the federal level.
Among Democrats, the response to the shooting was especially pointed, with many of the party's White House hopefuls weighing in on the gun violence crisis.
"Another horrific shooting shocks the nation, this time in Virginia Beach," Pete Buttigieg tweeted. "Already, this much is clear: it is unacceptable for America to remain the only developed country where this is routine. We must act."
'Horrific day'
Senator Bernie Sanders decried the influence of the National Rifle Association, a powerful lobby group that routinely calls for more guns in US society so that ordinary citizens are armed and ready to confront a "bad guy."
"The days of the NRA controlling Congress and writing our gun laws must end. Congress must listen to the American people and pass gun safety legislation. This sickening gun violence must stop," he said in a tweet.
Virginia Governor Ralph Northam said it was a "horrific day" for the state.
"Our hearts ache over the senseless violence that has been inflicted upon the Virginia Beach community today. My deepest condolences and prayers go to the families of those who left home this morning and will not return tonight," he said at a news conference.
Singer and music producer Pharrell Williams, a native of Virginia Beach, paid homage to the strength of his hometown.
"We are praying for our city, the lives that were lost, their families and everyone affected. We are resilient," he said in a tweet.
"We will not only get through this but we'll come out of this stronger than before we always do."
