Calif. workers comp lawyer named shooter in murder-suicide

Police are calling Friday’s murder-suicide at a workers compensation law firm in Long Beach, California, an act of “workplace violence” that left two men dead and one injured. 

The City of Long Beach Police department named John Alexander Mendoza, 58, from Redondo Beach, California, as the shooter at the Law Offices of Perona, Langer, Beck, Serbin and Harrison. The firm’s partner Major Langer, 75, of Rolling Hills, California, was killed. Ronald Beck, 65, another partner at the firm, was injured and remains hospitalized, according to a statement posted on the firm’s website Saturday. He is expected to survive, police said.

Mr. Mendoza took his own life in the incident and a gun was recovered at the scene, according to police. The State Bar of California’s database revealed that Mr. Mendoza has been a licensed attorney since 1989. His biography on the legal directory avvo.com shows that he covered mostly workers compensation cases. Mr. Langer, who was a personal injury attorney and senior managing partner at the firm, had given his colleague a positive review on the website in 2016.

Police say they are searching for a motive.

“The preliminary investigation determined that this was a workplace violence incident that occurred at a law firm, and all parties involved worked at this office,” the police press statement read.