Motive a mystery in fatal school shooting

SANTA CLARITA, Calif. — A 16-year-old boy planned the attack that killed two students and wounded three others at his Southern California high school, but investigators have yet to uncover the motivation for him to bring a handgun to campus and open fire shortly after his mother dropped him off, authorities said Friday.

The boy, Nathaniel Tennosuke Berhow, died Friday afternoon from a self-inflicted gunshot wound sustained after he shot the others the previous morning. His mother was present when he died, according to a Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department statement. Berhow, described by friends as quiet but funny and likable, showed no outward signs of violence prior to the attack. After more than 40 interviews, police still don’t know what prompted him to commit such a crime, said Capt. Kent Wegener of the department’s homicide unit. He said no manifesto, diary or suicide note had been found.

“It still remains a mystery why,” Sheriff Alex Villanueva told a press conference. He said it was “a planned attack, it was deliberate,” but “we don’t have” the details behind it.

Berhow opened fire around 7:30 a.m. Thursday, his birthday, after being dropped off at Saugus High School in the Los Angeles suburb of Santa Clarita. Video surveillance showed Berhow walk alone to the center of a quad, drop his backpack, pull out the gun and start firing, police said.

Villanueva said after opening fire Berhow “cleared a malfunction” with the gun and kept shooting. He counted his rounds, Villanueva said, firing about six shots and using the last bullet on himself. The attack took just 16 seconds. “As far as we know the actual targets were at random,” the sheriff said.

Villanueva said the conclusion that the attack was planned was based on Berhow bringing the weapon, ably handling it and keeping track of the rounds fired.

“It wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment act,” Villanueva said.

Three off-duty law enforcement officers were first on the scene and treated some of the wounded until paramedics arrived.

The dead were identified as 15-year-old Gracie Anne Muehlberger and 14-year-old Dominic Blackwell.

In a statement, Bryan and Cindy Muehlberger said they shared the news of their daughter’s death with “unexplainable brokenness.”