"I don't think anybody has any idea of what the motive is," said Clay King, mayor of Samson, Alabama, where some of the shootings took place. "The whole community is still in shock."
King -- who spoke to CNN's "American Morning" -- said he knew the shooter, Michael McLendon, and all of the victims.
"I coached him in both T-ball and Little League Baseball along with my two sons," he said of the shooter.
By the time McLendon ended his rampage, he had fatally shot his mother and set fire to her house, and killed his grandparents, his aunt and uncle, the wife and child of a sheriff's deputy, and three other people, according to King and the coroners of the two counties where the shootings occurred.
"He was shooting at just ordinary people going about their business," said Alabama state Sen. Harri Anne Smith.
Smith represents Geneva County, where all but one of the victims were
killed. Smith said she had been briefed about the incident by state and
local law enforcement. 
Watch CNN's Sean Callebs say who was shot first »
By early Wednesday, authorities were still trying to piece together the chronology of events and the motive for McLendon's actions.
Though they have identified all the victims, they withheld releasing their names until they could notify family members.
The shooting started about 4 p.m. at a house that McLendon shared with his mother, Lisa, in the town of Kinston, near the Florida border in Coffee County.
A passerby found the house on fire and alerted authorities. Inside, firefighters found the bodies of Lisa McLendon and four dogs, said county Coroner Robert Preachers.
The mother had been shot, he said.
The gunman then went east into Geneva County. There, he shot his grandfather, grandmother, uncle and aunt as they sat on a porch in the nearby town of Samson, said Geneva Coroner Max Motley.
The wife of a sheriff's deputy who lived in a house across the street was also killed, along with her toddler, Motley said. Both were shot.
A second child was airlifted to a hospital in Florida in critical condition, authorities said.
"I can't describe what happened, why it happened," Geneva County
Sheriff Greg Ward told CNN affiliate WTVY. "It's just a sad day for
Geneva County." Watch Sheriff Ward talk about the shootings »
McLendon, armed with a semiautomatic weapon, allegedly also fatally shot a man who lived in a mobile home in his family members' yard, Motley said.
At some point, the gunman headed down state Highway
52, firing at least seven bullets into a state trooper's car. The
trooper suffered minor injuries from shattered glass. Watch the aftermath of the shooting spree »
The final two victims were a woman killed at a Big-Little Store service station off the highway and a man outside the Samson Pipe and Supply store. Both victims were apparently shot at random, authorities said.
The gunman ended up at the Reliable Metal Products plant in Geneva,
where police rammed his vehicle, forcing him to get out. He fired a
30-round burst with what appeared to be an M16 rifle, grazing Police
Chief Frankie Lindsey with a bullet. Watch a timeline of the shootings »
"Then the subject entered the business. Within minutes, shots were heard. ... Law enforcement officers found him dead," state police Cpl. Steve Jarrett said.
The manufacturing plant is 12 miles from his mother's house.
Sheriff's officials say the gunman was a former employee of Reliable Metal, CNN affiliate WEAR-TV reported.
Col. Christopher Murphy, head of the Alabama Department of Public Safety, called the southern Alabama rampage "the worst that DPS has a memory of." Watch CNN's Anderson Cooper talk about the investigation »
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