Shooter killed after wounding 2 at popular Southern California pier

REDONDO BEACH >> A gunman opened fire at a popular Southern California pier complex and wounded two people, prompting a stampede of people fleeing the scene before police killed him, authorities said.

The shooting Wednesday night at the Redondo Beach Pier sent people running to get away, and police tweeted for people inside businesses on and near the pier to stay inside. The landmark horseshoe-shaped pier has shops, restaurants, bars and expansive areas for fishing and sightseeing.

Numerous 911 calls reported “a lone suspect shooting at citizens” around 8:20 p.m., a police statement said. The suspect was shot after officers responded and he fled down a rock embankment toward the ocean’s water line, where he was found dead, the statement said.

KTLA-TV reported that witnesses said the shooter was in the pier parking lot and began randomly shooting at people on the pier.

The suspect, described only as a man in his 30s, did not seem to know the people he had fired on, Los Angeles County sheriff’s Lt. Brandon Dean said.

“It was indiscriminate shooting,” Dean told the Los Angeles Times.

People near the shooting described chaos when the gunman opened fire.

“It was a stampede of people on the pier, and we were all running in the same direction to get off the pier,” witness Patricia Shafik told KCBS-TV.

The suspect was armed with a handgun and a knife, according to a statement from the sheriff’s department, which was assisting local police.

The victims, a man and a boy, suffered nonlife-threatening gunshot wounds to their lower torsos, the sheriff’s department said. They were hospitalized in stable condition. Authorities did not immediately identify the suspect.