A man shot two of his co-workers — killing one — in a Cathedral City car rental business Thursday morning before also shooting and killing himself.

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Police said four employees of Luxury Rent-A-Car, 68-350 E. Palm Canyon Drive, were meeting at the office just before the 10:30 a.m. shooting. Police said they do not know the subject matter of the meeting.

"It was just a business meeting, and I can't say any more than that," said Barry Curtis, the manager of Luxury Rent-A-Car. Curtis said the meeting involved employees from multiple offices.

All the meeting's participants were middle-aged men, and at least two were from the Los Angeles area, police said. During the meeting, one man got a handgun from another room and shot one of the others once, killing him.

He then shot another man twice, police said. Paramedics could be seen treating that man on the floor of the Luxury Rent-A-Car showroom before he was taken to Desert Regional Medical Center.

The shooter then shot and killed himself, and the fourth person involved in the meeting called police, officials said.

Employees of the Enterprise Rent-A-Car location next door said a man ran into their business saying there had been a shooting and asking employees to call 911.

Justin Hoffman, an Enterprise management trainee, said he had not arrived at work by that time. He said he was driving on Palm Canyon Drive at about 10:35 a.m. and saw the shooting scene after some officials had arrived.

"One of the big floor-to-ceiling windows had a bullet hole in it and (had) shattered," he said. "I could see someone just lying on the ground."

Hoffman said he sees Luxury Rent-A-Car staff often but said he didn't get a good enough look at the shooting scene to see if he recognized the victim he saw.

Curtis, the manager of Luxury Rent-A-Car, said by phone that two employees were at the business Thursday morning and that he was away from the office at the time of the shooting.

"I was out on the road in Palm Springs," he said. "I was out on business."

Curtis initially said he had few details about the shooting, and when reached later Thursday afternoon he said police had asked him not to comment further on the shooting.

Names of the three men have not been released, but people who believed they may have been family or friends of the victims flocked to the scene throughout the morning.

Officers also said they were talking to a witness who was in the building at the time of the shooting.

After the shooting, police closed down Palm Canyon Drive in both directions in front of the business. All the eastbound lanes are now open, but one westbound lane remains closed between Cathedral Canyon and Bankside drives.

That closure is expected to last into the evening, so Cathedral City officials asked drivers to take Perez Road to access Palm Canyon Drive from Date Palm or Cathedral Canyon drives.

The city also recommended using alternate routes through the area like Dinah Shore Drive or Ramon Road.

Sandra Vida, who handles customer service at the nearby La Catedral de los Muebles furniture shop, said she could see scores of police, fire and paramedics vehicles from her store window.

The surrounding businesses near Luxury Rent-A-Car remain open, but customers were scarce while Palm Canyon Drive was shut down, Vida said.

An employee of Mattress Showroom, located directly across Palm Canyon Drive from Luxury Rent-A-Car, said he saw a police car speed by Thursday morning but didn't realize it was responding to the car rental business until he saw more authorities arrive.

The employee, who declined to give his name, said that at first, members of a SWAT team appeared to be looking for a gunman.

"They were looking around under the cars and everything, so they must have thought somebody was still in there," he said.

The employee said Mattress Showroom didn't see a slowdown in business because of the homicide investigation Thursday.

We're at the scene and will bring you more information as soon as we get it.