Authorities: Gunman in St. Petersburg shooting had "anger" issues

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) -- A man who fatally shot two people and wounded a third inside a Radio Shack had been involved in a road rage incident earlier in the day and his mother told authorities he had "anger-management issues," officials said Friday. The Pinellas County sheriff's officials had been trying to contact Justin M. Cudar, a 25-year-old University of South Florida psychology student, about an incident earlier Thursday in which he was believed to have assaulted two motorists when the shooting at a St. Petersburg mall occurred. Cudar walked into the Radio Shack Thursday evening and without warning fatally shot customer Kenneth Powell, 23, and store clerk Joanna Cruz, 19, and critically wounded another clerk, James Dolan, 30. He then fatally shot himself in the head. Marianne Pasha, a spokeswoman for the sheriff's office, said there is no known connection between the victims of the Radio Shack shooting and Cudar or the earlier road rage incident. Deputies had been talking to Cudar's mother during the day and were trying to track him down when they were told a man had walked into the Radio Shack at the Gateway Market Center and opened fire with a Glock .40-caliber handgun. "His mother said her son had anger-management issues," Pasha said Friday. "I am not sure anyone will know what set him off." Earlier on Thursday, the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office received a report that a man driving in north St. Petersburg had begun exchanging hostile glances with two people in a pickup truck as they drove. At an intersection, the man got out of his car and threw a steering-wheel locking device through the left rear passenger window. The victims were so frightened they fled and hid behind a nearby drug store while they called for help, Pasha said. A witness spotted Cudar's tag number and called the sheriff's office. Pasha said deputies traced the tag back to Cudar's home and talked to his mother, who told them her son had "mental issues," police said. Deputies never talked directly to Cudar, Pasha said. "We knew who he was, we had contact with his mother and she had telephone contact with him," Pasha said. "The last thing our deputy knew was Justin was coming back to his house and they were going to meet." Cudar's twin sister, Jessica Cudar, told the St. Petersburg Times she was skeptical of the report from police. His mother, Barbara Cudar, did not answer her door Friday. "My brother is a genuinely good person," said Cudar, of Sarasota. "He has a good heart. I love him." Michelle Luciano, who lived next door the Cudars for a decade in the quiet, modest northeast St. Petersburg neighborhood, said Justin Cudar never showed any outward signs of trouble. "He was a good kid," Luciano said. "It's just shocking." Bill Hughes, who identified himself as Justin Cudar's cousin told WFLA television he had no idea what might have caused the shooting. Hughes came to the scene of the shooting Friday and wept as he answered a reporter's questions. "What made him do that? I feel sorry for my whole family and the families of the people involved," Hughes said. "I just want you to know that Justin was a good boy." Dolan, the lone survivor of the shooting, remained in critical condition at Bayfront Medical Center on Friday after undergoing surgery. A hospital spokeswoman declined to release specific information about his injuries. Powell was the father of two young sons, said his uncle, the Rev. Louis Murphy who is pastor of the Mount Zion Progressive Missionary Baptist Church, a prominent church in St. Petersburg. Cruz lived with her mother at a nearby apartment complex after graduating last year from high school. "Kenny was a quiet person, he was very easy going," Murphy said of his nephew. "He was a very, very private person, somewhat of an introvert. You had to squeeze him to get a word out of him." Murphy said he believed his nephew worked at a Publix grocery store in the same shopping center, and said the it was simply a matter of his nephew being "in the wrong place at the wrong time." "He didn't have any really big dreams, he just wanted to enjoy life," Murphy said. "I know he was a real good father to his boys."