17 people shot with a "long gun", 3 are dead. Who cares?

Three people were killed and 14 injured Thursday after a gunman drove through two Kansas towns taking shots at people before opening fire at his workplace, police said.

The assailant, who was identified by victims' family members as Cedric Larry Ford, was armed with a long gun and a pistol during the "mass shooting" in Newton and Hesston, nearby towns about 30 miles north of Wichita, according to officials.

The entire incident lasted just 26 minutes — from when the gunman shot and injured a person and stole a truck, until the first police officer on the scene shot him dead shortly after 5 p.m. local time (6 p.m. ET).

Ford was killed at Excel Industries, a lawn-care company in Hesston where he worked. Fifteen of the victims were shot inside the building — including all three who died, Harvey County Sheriff T. Walton first said at a news briefing Thursday night. Five of the wounded remained in serious condition overnight.

"He was just shooting indiscriminately"

Walton told NBC News early Friday that the shooter used an assault rifle during the rampage, and also carried a semi-automatic pistol that was not fired.

The sheriff, in discussing a possible motive, said a deputy had served the shooter a protection from abuse order at about 3:30 p.m. It was the second such order the gunman received after he was supposed to appear in court but failed to show, Walton said.

"This is the final protection order," he said, adding that someone typically receives one after violence in a relationship.

He did not immediately detail who requested the order of protection, but said it's possible it played a part in the workplace violence.

"You always say it won't happen here, but it happened here," Walton said. "We'll get through it. It's a good community. We have strong people."

The FBI and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were on the scene but the sheriff said the incident was not related to "terrorism."

Kansas law doesn't require a permit to buy long guns or handguns, which don't have to be registered.

Court records showed that Ford, 38, was a felon who previously lived in Miami and was on probation with a series of convictions in Florida including burglary.

He had a criminal record stretching back to October 1996, when he was charged with carrying a concealed firearm when he was 18 years old, the records showed.

Law enforcement officials first became aware of Thursday's incident after being called to reports of two people shot and injured, one in the shoulder and one in the leg, on different streets across the two towns.

The gunman then drove north toward his workplace, where he shot another person in the parking lot, according to a statement from the Harvey County Sheriff's Office.

He was "seen entering the building with a long gun" before he "opened fire inside the building," the statement said.

By the time the first police officer arrived at the scene the gunman was "actively shooting at any targets that came into his sights," Walton told the news conference.

The officer — a member of the Hesston police force — went in alone, killed the gunman and "saved a lot of lives," the sheriff said.

Walton said the shooter would have fired "until he was out of ammo. I don't know how much he had. … He was just shooting indiscriminately."

A couple of hours later, Newton police and a SWAT team converged on a home in a Newton trailer park were the gunman was believed to have lived.

Walton told reporters that the shooter's roommate was inside and refusing to engage with officers — but when officials obtained a warrant and returned at 10 p.m. they found the property empty, NBC station KSN reported.

Walton would not identify the suspect or discuss a motive but said there were "some things that triggered this individual," according to The Associated Press.