UPDATED: Shooter sent 'radical' e-mails (with PHOTO GALLERY)

MIRAMAR BEACH - Two people are dead and three seriously injured after a man shot them with a rifle and barricaded himself inside a townhouse in Miramar Beach.

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CLICK HERE to view more photos from the scene.

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Lawmen don't yet know why Dannie Baker, who is in his 60s, shot his victims, said Walton County Sheriff's Capt. Tom Ring.

Walton County sheriff's deputies responded to Summer Lake Townhomes at 340 Scenic Gulf Drive at 1:48 a.m. Thursday, then called for assistance from Okaloosa County and Santa Rosa County.

"Both those agencies have good tactical capabilities," Ring said.

When special response teams arrived at the shooting scene they used a loud speaker to communicate with Baker, said Michele Nicholson with the Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office.

Baker surrendered shortly after 6 a.m.

His tennis shoes were discarded near the door of the townhouse where he was taken into custody Thursday morning.

Ring said although Baker surrendered at townhouse No. 25, his victims were shot at townhouse 12, creating two crime scenes.

Two of Baker's surviving victims were flown by helicopter to a Pensacola hospital, and one was taken by ambulance to Sacred Heart Hospital on the Emerald Coast, Nicholson said.

As of noon Thursday, one patient was in critical condition, one stable and one was listed in good condition, Ring said.

Their names, along with the names of the two victims killed, have not been released.

"It's my understanding some were of Hispanic descent," Ring said.

Several young adults hugged each other and cried as they were being interviewed by investigators outside the shooting scene Thursday morning.

Ring confirmed the victims were foreign nationals and said releasing their names could be a long and involved process because of country and family notification issues.

"It's just senseless," said Walton County Sheriff Mike Adkinson.

According to the Walton County Property Appraiser's Web site, Dannie Baker is listed as the owner of Unit 25 in the Summer Lake complex. Unit 12 is owned by a Destin couple and rented through Southern Coastal Management.

In 2004, Baker was an active volunteer at the Walton County Republican Headquarters during the Bush/Cheney campaign.

"He volunteered the same time I did," said Pat Magee, now a chairwoman for the Walton County Republican Executive Committee. "I was shocked. The person I knew would have never done anything bad to anyone."

Magee said Baker answered phones and did general office work during the campaign. Although she didn't remember much about his personal life, she said he had mentioned he was from Alabama and had gone to college at Auburn University.

Another chairman for the Executive Committee, Jim Anders, said he remembered Baker being very active during the 2004 election and added he was very eccentric. He said once a year Baker would also travel to Atlanta to assist in some sort of music ministry there.

Baker did not volunteer during the last election, McGee and Anders said, but area Republicans continued to receive e-mails from him that grew increasingly disturbing.

"Dannie had some emotional problems, it seemed," Anders said, adding that many e-mails were "radical" and "inappropriate."

The e-mails were so disturbing they were reported to the Walton County Sheriff's Office. Ring said he had been made aware of the former complaints and investigators would be looking into them further.

The Walton County Sheriff's Office is handling the investigation and hopes to release more information once the victims' families have been notified. Baker is currently being held at the Walton County Jail, but has not been formally charged with a crime.

Baker was arrested in July 2007 and pleaded no contest to resisting an officer without violence in Walton County, according to the Clerk of Courts Web site. He had only traffic violations listed for Okaloosa County.