Gunman kills 3, injures 9 at party

LONG BEACH — A gunman opened fire on a party, killing three people and wounding nine at a home in the Southern California city of Long Beach, authorities said Wednesday.

Police said a man in dark clothing with his face concealed fired the shots from an alley behind the home Tuesday night on the gathering of 25 to 30 people, including a group of coworkers, before fleeing in a vehicle.

Police Chief Robert Luna said officers found a horrific, bloodfilled scene when they reached the home. Seven women and two men were sent to hospitals, and three men were killed in the attack.

Some of the injured were critically wounded and others were in stable condition, said Long Beach Police Department spokeswoman Jennifer de Prez.

“I don’t believe this was just a random act of violence,” Luna told reporters Wednesday. “It sounds like, based on what we know at this point — again, it’s early on — this may have been a targeted attack.”

Authorities said they don’t know a motive for the attack and are searching for at least one suspect, possibly more. Luna said there’s no evidence the shooting is gangrelated.

Luna said police heard partygoers were gathered for various occasions, including Halloween, a birthday and an office party. He said some of the victims worked together but declined to say where.

Luna called the shooter a coward and urged residents to come forward with any information that might lead to an arrest. He said he doesn’t remember a case with such a large number of victims in the coastal city of 470,000 people in his more than three decades working there.

California has the strongest gun laws of any

American state, according to the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, a gun control advocacy group. It bans most assault weapons and limits purchases of new handguns to one person per month.

Yet the shooting Tuesday appeared to be the third mass shooting in California this year. In July, three people were killed and more than 10 injured in a shooting at a food festival in the South Bay city of Gilroy. In April, one woman was killed and several others were wounded at a synagogue near San Diego.

Over the summer, 26 mass shootings nationwide left 126 people dead.