VALENCIA, Spain (AP) -- A retiree with a shotgun started a blaze in his home Sunday, then turned the gun on firefighters, police and a neighbor, killing four people before he was shot to death, news reports said.
The shooter was identified as Ramon Tatay, 60, who lived alone. His victims were two policemen, a fireman and a 68-year-old woman who lived below the suspect in a two-story apartment building in this city on Spain's southeast coast.
Tatay apparently started a fire by shooting at a butane gas canister in his apartment. He then left his home, ran into his neighbor and opened fire, killing her, said Juan Antonio Requena, a nephew of the victim.
Tatay opened fire again when police and firefighters showed up to put out the blaze, the Efe news agency said. Tatay suffered a fatal head wound in an ensuing gunbattle.
Tatay was separated from his wife, who lives in France with their five children, and had lived alone for the past 10 years, news reports said. State radio said Tatay had been forced to take early retirement from his job at the port of Valencia.
A neighbor, Antonio Lopez, told Efe that Tamay had complained of being persecuted by police and other authorities and he feared his telephone was bugged.
``He said that someday he was going to explode because he could not take it any more,'' Lopez told the agency.
