California shooting: suspect knew the four people killed
Details started to emerge on Thursday morning about a mass shooting at an office building in southern California that left four people, including a nineyear-old boy, dead the night before.
Police said the suspect in the shooting in the city of Orange, south of Los Angeles, knew all of the victims through a “business and personal relationship”. A fifth victim was hospitalized in critical condition.
The incident was the third US mass shooting in two weeks, following attacks in Atlanta, and Boulder, Colorado.
Authorities said that when police arrived to the two-story office building around 5.30pm, the shooting was in progress, and the suspect had used chains to lock the front gate. Officers opened fire, and were later able to force their way inside the courtyard. There, police found a nine-year-old boy who had died and a woman by him who was injured.
“It appears a little boy died in his mother’s arms as she was trying to save him during this horrific massacre,” said Todd Spitzer, the Orange county district attorney.
The other deceased victims were two women and one man, who were found in the offices of Unified Homes, a mobile homes realtor. Police said the nine-year-old’s mother worked at the business, but authorities have not yet released the identities of the victims.
The suspect was identified as Aminadab Gasiola Gonzalez, 44. His specific relationship to the business and the victims was unclear. He was injured and taken to the hospital in critical condition, though police have not clarified whether officers shot him or the wounds were self-inflicted. His exact motives were unclear.
The California governor, Gavin Newsom, in a tweet called the killings “horrifying and heartbreaking”.
“Our hearts are with the families impacted by this terrible tragedy tonight,” he said.
Congresswoman Katie Porter, a California Democrat whose district includes the city of Orange, said on Twitter that she was “deeply saddened”.
“Enough is enough. We have to do something about the guns on our streets,” said the California senator Dianne Feinstein.
People had gathered outside the building on Wednesday night hoping to get word about loved ones.
Paul Tovar told KTLA-TV that his brother owns Unified Homes. “He’s not answering his phone, neither’s my niece,” Tovar said. “I’m pretty scared and worried ... right now I’m just praying really hard.”
Cody Lev, who lives across the street from the office building, told the Orange County Register he heard three loud pops that were spaced out, then three more. There was a period of silence and then Lev said he heard
numerous shots, followed by sirens and more shots.
The killings followed a mass shooting at a supermarket in Boulder last week that left 10 dead. A week before that, six Asian women were among eight people killed at three Atlanta-area spas.
Orange is about 30 miles from Los Angeles and home to about 140,000 people. Jennifer Amat, Orange police lieutenant, said the shooting was the worst in the city since December 1997, when a gunman armed with an assault rifle attacked a California department of transportation maintenance yard.