Little Rock, Ark. (ABP)—A man fitting the description of a suspect who shot and killed the chairman of the Arkansas Democratic Party Aug. 13 menaced employees at the nearby Arkansas Baptist State Convention headquarters shortly thereafter.

“A middle-aged white man in a white shirt entered our building at 525 West Capitol (Avenue) with a gun,” according to Dan Jordan, the convention’s business manager. “The operator recognized immediately there was a threat. We have a process in place where she called the building manager immediately to respond.”

The Baptist building is located six blocks east of the Democratic Party offices, also on Capitol Avenue, in downtown Little Rock, Ark.

Jordan said the man ran up the stairwell to the second floor of the Baptist building with a pistol in his hand. When Kirby Martin, the convention’s building manager, confronted him, the man cocked the gun and pointed it at Martin.

Martin asked what was wrong, and the man responded he had lost his job. Martin was able to flee the threat, and the gunman went down another stairway and out the front door of the building.

The building operator had called Little Rock police, who arrived soon after the man left the building. The gunman had jumped into a pickup truck on Arch Street, at the side entrance of the building, and sped away. Jordan said the police were in pursuit of him as soon as he drove off.

The man did not fire a shot while in the Arkansas Baptist building.

Bill Gwatney, Arkansas Democratic Party chairman, was reportedly shot three times in the torso after a man similar to the assailant’s description entered the Democratic office, just moments before the Baptist building incident.

Police assailed the suspect after a high-speed chase to Sheridan, about 30 miles south of downtown Little Rock, where they disabled his truck. At some point in the incident gunfire was exchanged and the suspect was killed.

Authorities later identified the shooter as Timothy Dale Johnson, 50. He lived in Searcy, Ark., about 50 miles northeast of Little Rock. According to several local news outlets, Johnson lived alone and had been fired from his job at a Target store earlier in the day.

Authorities who conducted a search of his home indicated it did not turn up any writings, books or magazines that would provide insight into his motive.

Gwatney, 48, was a businessman from a prominent Arkansas family that owned a bank and, later, a group of automobile dealerships. He rose to political power as a state senator from Jacksonville, a Little Rock suburb.

Gwatney was a close friend and political ally of the Clinton family. Bill and Hillary Clinton released statements calling him a “cherished friend and confidante” and saying they were “deeply saddened” by his death.

“The details and stories will be told for days to come through the local and national media, but the greater story involves the emotional and spiritual needs of those directly affected by these events,” noted Emil Turner, the Arkansas convention’s executive director. “Their lives will be marked by painful memories and unresolved questions.”

Turner urged prayer for the families of Gwatney and Johnson.

With additional reporting by Robert Marus of Associated Baptist Press