Primary school a target for gunman on rampage
AT least five people have been killed and 10 injured in shootings at multiple locations in northern California, and the shooter has been killed by police.
Students were shot and wounded at a primary school, although police said no children were among the dead from what appeared to be “random”, drive-by attacks.
Details were sketchy hours after the shooting and authorities did not have a firm count of the wounded because of the number of places where gunman Kevin Janson Neal opened fire in Rancho Tehama Reserve, about 210km north of Sacramento.
Tehama County Assistant Sheriff Phil Johnston told a TV station in Chico that police were investigating at least seven crime scenes in around Rancho Tehama.
Police say the gunman fired into the school from outside its grounds. No motive is yet known.
Jeanine Quist, an administrative assistant with the Corning Union Elementary School District, said no-one was killed at the school but a “number” of students were wounded. and
The small district school is staffed by four teachers.
Mr Johnston said one student was wounded at the school and another was shot while driving with a woman, who also was wounded.
“It was very clear at the onset that we had an individual who was randomly picking targets,” he said.
He said the gunfire started with a domestic violence incident that neighbours reported.
Police say the gunman killed four before he was shot by police.
The media reported the shooter was “well known” to local police, who have been called to his address at least six times in the past year over reports of gunshots and open fires.