CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Let’s go back to April 3, 1995, the day of Selena’s funeral. Coastal Bend neighbors were still in shock over her murder just days earlier when they were hit by another unexpected tragedy - a mass shooting.
In the end, six people, including the shooter, were killed inside the Walter Rossler Company building.
On the 30th anniversary of that horrific crime, KRIS 6 News anchor Andy Liscano spoke with an employee who came face to face with the killer and lived to tell her story.
Lisa Rossler remembered she was at work, sitting at her desk, next to Wendy Gilmore, when she saw James Daniel Simpson walk in.
It was 4:15 in the afternoon. She didn’t notice anything suspicious about Simpson that day.
He was a former employee who had worked for the Walter Rossler Company for about a year before leaving the company.
Walter Rossler was Lisa’s dad. She said Simpson had quit about 9 months earlier.
But on this day, for reasons still unknown, Simpson walked up to Gilmore, gun in hand, and using an expletive, told her “This is for you !” He then shot and killed Gilmore, but that was just the beginning of his rampage.
Flash forward to present day, Rossler told KRIS 6 News, exclusively, the story of what happened over the next few minutes that day.
“(It was) scary as hell. Why is this happening? What's going on?' Rossler said when KRIS 6 News asked what that day had been like.
She spoke about how and why Simpson never shot her or her infant son, who was also in the office that day.
“He came into that office and I was holding my son at the time," Rossler told KRIS 6 News. "He didn't say anything. He just stood there and I screamed, 'Please don't.' And the look changed on his face. Like, 'Oh no, what have I done?'"
Shortly after shooting Gilmore, Rossler remembers Simpson walking across the small hallway and shooting employees Derek Harrison and Richard Tomlinson, as well as Rossler’s parents. Some had sought shelter under desks, but Simpson found them and killed them.
The way Rossler remembered it, five people were murdered in a matter of minutes.
Ironically, when Simpson quit his job with the company, Walter Rossler had Harrison and Tomlinson go to his house to try and convince to come back to work for the company.
“There's a reason why they were taken,” Rossler told KRIS 6 News. “And only God knows what it is. And I still go over that in my head.”
Rossler, who was 24 years old at the time of the shooting, recalled that Simpson shot each of the victims at least twice, including once in the head. As he was walking toward the rear door of the building, Rossler said Simpson shot himself in the head, and later died at the hospital.
There were other employees in the building at the time, but at least two of them managed to escape by crawling out the back door.
Lisa Rossler said to this day, she still has no idea was Simpson’s motive was to do what he did, but whenever she goes out to dinner, she always makes sure to sit facing the front door.
