Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Gunman kills 4, injures 10 in California
Law enforcement officers killed the gunman, who authorities said seemed to have chosen his targets at random.
Authorities said four people were killed and 10 others wounded Tuesday after a gunman, shooting at random, opened fire at an elementary school and six other locations in Northern California.
At least two children were shot and injured, one of them at the school, police said. The gunman was then killed by a pair of law enforcement officers who responded to the carnage in what police described as a “very widespread area.”
This latest shooting to terrorize a community began shortly before 8 a.m. in Rancho Tehama Reserve, about 130 miles north of Sacramento, Phil Johnston, an assistant sheriff in Tehama County, told reporters.
Police received “multiple 911 calls of multiple different shooting sites, including the elementary school,” he said.
“It was very clear early on that we had a subject that was randomly picking targets,” Johnston said.
Witnesses reported hearing gunshots and children screaming at an elementary school about five miles down a road from where the shooting is believed to have started.
Johnston said police did not know what might have motivated the attack. Police have not officially confirmed the shooter’s identity, Johnston said, but he added that the person was known to law enforcement.
While details about what led up to the shooting were unclear, he said authorities were told by neighbors that “there was a domestic violence incident” involving the suspected attacker Monday. Johnston also said there was an ongoing “neighborhood dispute” involving the attacker, who had a residence in Rancho Tehama.
“It’s a very sad day for us here in Tehama County,” Johnston said.
No children were killed in the rampage, Johnston said, but at least two were injured. One child was shot and wounded at the school. Another child was shot in a truck “that was driving down the road along with a female adult,” he said.
Both children were among those taken to area hospitals.
Several people were wounded at the school, said Jeanine Quist, an administrative assistant with the Corning Union Elementary School District.
Johnston said the gunman shot a person, stole a pickup truck and went on a shooting rampage. He said after crashing the truck, the suspect hijacked a second vehicle and kept shooting people at random, including children.
After the shooting, Johnston said police recovered a semiautomatic rifle and two handguns believed to have been the shooter’s.
Gov. Jerry Brown said in a statement that he and his wife were “saddened to hear about today’s violence in Tehama County, which shockingly involved schoolchildren. We offer our condolences to the families who lost loved ones and unite with all Californians in grief.”