Seven-Year Job Search Has Fatal Ending

VENTURA, Calif. - Yesterday morning, Alan Winterbourne, unemployed since 1986, left home with a cardboard box filled with seven years' worth of letters, job applications and help-wanted ads.

On the cover of a 3- by 5-inch notebook in which he had kept a meticulous log of his job search, he wrote: "At least 1 contact a day 5 days a week 2/14/86 - 12/2/93."

Yesterday he apparently decided his long job search was over.

Winterbourne drove to the Ventura County Star-Free Press, dropped off the box in the lobby and delivered a separate envelope containing what he must have thought were key documents - job-performance reviews from Northrop Corp., his resignation from the company, a transcript of his unemployment-compensation-benefit appeals hearing and a letter to his congressman.

The envelope was addressed to opinion-page editor Timm Herdt. As Winterbourne handed it over, he explained that it contained "some documents about unemployment" and said that he would call back later in the day or Friday to discuss it.

Less than a half-hour later, Alan Winterbourne entered a state unemployment office in Oxnard carrying a handgun and a loaded shotgun. He opened fire on employees there, shooting seven people in the office, three fatally. He also killed an Oxnard police officer in the following chase. Shortly after noon, he was dead, killed by police in a shootout.

Friends and neighbors knew Winterbourne as quiet, polite, well-kept. He was 33, a native of Ventura and a member of a family prominent locally in the arts. His late father had been a ceramics teacher at Ventura College, his mother the former office manager of the Ventura County Symphony.

Those who live on Milton Avenue described Winterbourne as a gentle neighbor - one who mowed the lawn of an elderly woman next door and participated in community events. He even ran a quirky campaign for Congress in 1990, losing in the Republican primary to Rep. Bob Lagomarsino but picking up 5,703 votes.

But some who work in government knew a different man - one who had been hassling them over a variety of concerns. Ventura City Councilman Gary Tuttle said Winterbourne had spoken to him several times recently over a neighborhood concern and that "he was very driven and obsessed."

A former employee of the Job Training Policy Council said Winterbourne registered in several training programs in the late 1980s, including one for people with severe barriers to employment. "He was one who had so many barriers we just couldn't help him," the employee said. "He was crazy."

Laurie Williams Shelton, an aide to former Congressman Lagomarsino, said Winterbourne had been a frequent visitor to the office. "He was extremely intense," she said, "but he never seemed to come to a conclusion. His problems were so ill-defined, there wasn't a starting point to help him. . . . And he certainly didn't like to be questioned."

His hunt for employment had become maddening. Winterbourne had kept careful records of his job search. The cardboard box included 288 letters, addressed to every major employer in Ventura County and beyond. He responded to scores of classified ads, attended dozens of job fairs. What he had to show for his efforts was a pile of rejections.

What drove Winterbourne to the Employment Development Department (EDD) office? The documents he placed in the envelope describe a grievance with the office over a denial of benefits, stemming from his resignation in February 1986 from the Northrup Corp., where he worked for six months after graduating with a degree in computer science from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

His claim for unemployment benefits was contested by Northrop, which said Winterbourne was not entitled because he left voluntarily. In his appeal, Winterbourne claimed he quit for good cause - fear for personal safety. He declined to elaborate to an administrative-law judge, citing government secrets.

Yesterday Winterbourne entered the Employment Development Department office in Oxnard, walked into an employee area and began firing. He then left the office, jumped into a parked car and led police on a chase through an agricultural area.

Near an area of lemon groves and farm fields, the gunman got out of his car and fired a rifle at officers behind him. Policeman James O'Brien, 35, was struck and killed.

Winterbourne got back into the car and fled. He pulled into the Ventura EDD office, got out of his car carrying a rifle and was shot by a half-dozen police officers.

Those killed at the state office were identified as Anne Velasco, 42, of Fillmore, and Richard Villegas, 43, of Oxnard, both employees of the office, and Richard Bateman, 65, of Camarillo, who worked for the Association for Retarded Citizens of Ventura County.

Information from the Los Angeles Times is included in this report.