California shooting rampage spills into streets
Manhunt follows slayings . Employees at a San Bernardino, Calif., social services facility sought refuge after as many as three people with guns stormed their workplace on Wednesday. At least 14 people were killed. After the attack, police cornered a bla
As gunfire crackled through a Southern California social services facility Wednesday morning, barricaded employees sent urgent text messages to loved ones.
Terry Petit got one from his daughter, who was locked in an office.
“People shot. In the office waiting for cops,” it read. “Pray for us.”
Scott Murphy received a similar blitz of text messages from his daughter.
“I’m in a tiny room … we’re freaking out,” she wrote. She, too, asked for his prayers. “As a parent, as a father, that’s the worst things that you can have come across your phone,” he later told CNN.
As many as three people armed with guns stormed the facility in San Bernardino, about 96 kilometres east of Los Angeles, killing at least 14 people and injuring 17 others, authorities said. Ten of the wounded were in critical condition as of press time.
The suspects were believed to have fled in a black SUV, prompting a massive manhunt through the city’s streets.
“They came prepared to do what they did, as if they were on a mission,” San Bernardino police chief Jarrod Burguan told reporters.
Working on tips, police zeroed in on a residence in nearby Redlands, California. As they approached, a dark SUV took off and police gave chase.
The pursuit ended up back in San Bernardino.
David Danelski, a reporter with The Press-Enterprise newspaper, followed the chase from his car.
“I heard a thundering sound. I didn’t recognize the sound as gunfire. Then I heard something strange, a whizzing sound go by my car,” he later wrote in an account online.
“I thought, ‘ Oh my God, that could be gunshots,’ and I pulled over.”
As he got out, numerous officers ran by him and more gunshots rang out.
Danelski darted across the street and took cover behind a block wall. The shooting lasted several minutes, he later told CNN.
At about 3:15 p.m. local time, a KABC television news helicopter hovered over the aftermath: a black SUV, its windows shot out and its driver’s side door ajar.
The camera then panned a short distance away to what a TV announcer described as a “gruesome” scene — a motionless body in a pool of blood and what appeared to be a long gun nearby. Officers appeared to remove a second person from the vehicle.
Heavily armed police had slowly approached the SUV from both directions in armoured trucks to make sure there were no other threats.
Wednesday evening, Burguan confirmed that two suspects — one male and one female — were dead at the scene. They were both dressed in tactical gear and armed with assault rifles and handguns, he said.
Citing two law enforcement sources, the Los Angeles Times identified one of the dead suspects as Syed Farook, an American citizen. The newspaper said someone by the same name was employed as a county environmental health specialist.
A third person, seen running away from the scene, was detained. It was unclear if that person was involved in the shooting or not.
One officer was taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, police said.
There was no official confirmation of a motive. The Los Angeles Times reported the shooting may have been sparked by a dispute at a holiday party taking place at the facility.
Burguan confirmed a dispute had taken place, but said it was too early to draw a link.
David Bowdich, an FBI spokesman, said authorities had not ruled out the possibility the shooting was an act of terrorism.
“At minimum, we have a domestic terrorism situation,” Burguan said.
The incident was the deadliest on U.S. soil since 26 children and teachers were killed in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012.
U.S. President Barack Obama used the occasion to repeat his call for reforms to gun-control laws, including stronger background checks.
“There are steps we can take to make Americans safer,” he told CBS News. “We should never think this is something that just happens in the normal course of events.”
The setting of Wednesday’s massacre was the Inland Regional Center, a private, non-profit facility that provides care to individuals with developmental disabilities ranging from autism to cerebral palsy. It employs 670 people.
At around 11 a.m., gunmen targeted a conference centre rented out by county public health employees, said Marybeth Feild, president and CEO of the centre. It was a holiday event, Keith Nelson, who sits on the centre’s board of trustees, told CNN.
As shots rang out, employees scrambled for cover, many locking themselves in offices.
Debbie Alvarado told CBS News her daughter, Michelle, who had been shot in the side, played dead along with several other employees.
One father shared the text messages he exchanged with his daughter with KCBS television.
“Dad, shooting at my work. Shot people. In office waiting for cops to catch him. Prayer (sic) for us,” she wrote.
“Hide,” the father responded. “Find a good spot. Hide now.”
Tom Carrillo said he rushed to the site after getting a message from his daughter. “Dad, I’m scared,” she wrote, according to the San Bernardino Sun.
The gunfire lasted anywhere from five to eight minutes, said Sandy Wood, an employee with the Inland Empire Lighthouse for the Blind across the street.
She told CNN she heard maybe 25 to 30 shots.
“It stopped and started again,” she said. “It sounded like assault rifles.”
Marcos Aguilera told CNN that his wife, who texted him while barricaded in an office, described seeing bodies on the floor.
“She texted me and said, ‘there’s a guy shooting, there’s a shooter,’” he said. “I called 911 and got here as soon as I could.”
His wife was eventually able to flee the building with the aid of SWAT team members.
Some of the wounded were loaded onto a truck in order to drive them out of danger, the Sun reported.
Victims were taken to hospitals across the region.
Police bomb technicians were called in to assess suspicious objects located in the building. Burguan said they believed there was an explosive device.
A distraught Sherry Esquerra said she was searching for her daughter and son-in-law, both of whom work at the centre.
“I just don’t understand why somebody would come in and start shooting,” she said.
She said she repeatedly tried calling her daughter but got nothing.
“I just get her message. Straight to voicemail.”