VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) — An off-duty Edgewater police officer was shot and killed on Monday at an Ormond-by-the-Sea gas station.

An employee at the Circle K was seen on surveillance footage walking out of the store shortly after the victim, David Jewell, 45, walked in around 4:08 p.m.

The shooter, Eduardo Felipe Labrada Machado, 24, went to his car to retrieve a jacket, then walked back into the store and shot Jewell multiple times, killing him, the Volusia Sheriff’s Office announced.

“I know when I went to bed last night, my prayer was that he didn’t feel anything, that the first shot killed him and everything else that happened afterwards,” Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood said.

According to VSO, Machado told investigators he’d seen Jewell in the store several times and believed he had argued with him at some point in the past, but couldn’t provide any details.

Machado did not indicate whether he was a police officer or whether he had seen Jewell in uniform.

“For the record, Officer Jewell was unarmed yesterday, and from what we understand from his family, when he’s not working, he doesn’t carry a firearm,” Chitwood said. “So working with the State Attorney’s office obviously [it] is a first-degree murder case.”

According to VSO, Machado told investigators he had seen Jewell with a firearm in the past and was afraid of him.

Machado told VSO that he was having a bad day on his drive to work and thought about shooting Jewell earlier.

When Machado arrived at work and saw Jewell, he used a handgun he purchased two hours and four minutes earlier to shoot the officer 24 times, using two clips, from 1 to 2 feet away, Chitwood said.

“That gun was bought for one purpose and one purpose alone,” Chitwood said. “That gun was bought to assassinate police Officer Jewell.

Machado did not say anything to Jewell before the shooting.

“David was a guy that we could rely on for anything, never heard a bad thing about him, and he’s going to be a tremendous loss to the Edgewater Police Department,” Acting Edgewater Police Chief Charles Geiger said in a media briefing at the scene.

“He didn’t deserve to die in this, this cowardly act,” said Joseph Maloney, Edgewater’s interim city manager.

The motive for the shooting remains under investigation. Machado has confessed to the murder, according to the sheriff.

“He has confessed that he knows the difference between right and wrong,” Chitwood said.

The sheriff also said the defendant was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and was allegedly being treated via telemedicine, but that has not been confirmed yet. Interviews with his family described the defendant as a “quiet” man who played video games and had no history of homicidal or anti-police ideologies in his past.

“The Volusia Sheriff’s Office sends its condolences to Jewell’s family and the entire Edgewater Police Department. Jewell also previously worked for the Volusia Sheriff’s Office as a Telecommunicator,” VSO said in a post on Facebook.

Machado was booked into the Volusia County Branch Jail and charged with first-degree murder.