The shooting that claimed four lives — including a child’s — in Orange, California, was the worst in the city of about 140,000 residents since 1997, when a man killed the same number of people, according to a report.

Arturo Reyes Torres, 41, who was fired as an equipment operator for the state Department of Transportation, carried an assault rifle, a shotgun and a handgun when he returned to his workplace on Dec. 18 that year, the Orange County Register reported at the time.

Unidentified people comfort each other as they stand near a business building where a shooting occurred in Orange, Calif., Wednesday, March 31, 2021. Police say several people were killed, including a child, and the suspected shooter was wounded by police. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Unidentified people comfort each other as they stand near a business building where a shooting occurred in Orange, Calif., Wednesday, March 31, 2021. Police say several people were killed, including a child, and the suspected shooter was wounded by police. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Bent on exacting revenge for being axed six weeks earlier, Torres gunned down four and wounded several others, including a police officer.

Torres was then fatally shot in a wild shootout with police, according to the news outlet.

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The gunman, who had worked for Caltrans for about 15 years, was fired after being videotaped while illicitly selling scrap aluminum from the state facility’s yard, the Register reported.