American Notes FLORIDA

A little after 6 p.m. last Thursday, William Bryan Cruse, 59, got into his car, carrying a high-powered rifle, a shotgun, a handgun and a bag of ammunition, and headed for a nearby shopping mall in Palm Bay, Fla. (pop. 45,000). He opened fire through the plate-glass windows of a crowded Winn Dixie supermarket and an adjacent jewelry shop. Stan Graybush, 45, was near a check-out line inside the Winn Dixie. "I heard boom boom boom," he said. "I yelled, 'Get on the floor!' There must have been 50 people running in all different directions."

Cruse took hostages and held off police for 7 1/2 hours before being captured. His toll: six dead, including two policemen, and 14 injured. The gunman, a retired librarian who is married to an ailing wife, had a reputation as a neighborhood crank. To one of his hostages, he explained his mindless massacre: "If I wasn't drunk, it wouldn't have happened."