Four people were killed and nearly a dozen wounded, including two children, on Tuesday when a gunman went on a rampage, randomly picking his targets at a school and other locations in northern California.
Tehama County Assistant Sheriff Phil Johnston told reporters that the assailant was killed by police following the mass shooting, which began at about 8am at a home in Rancho Tehama Reserve and continued at several locations in the community, including the elementary school.
He said no children were among the dead and the motive for the assault was unclear, although it might be linked to a domestic dispute and a history of disagreements with neighbors.
Photo: AFP
“It was very clear at the onset that we had an individual that was randomly picking targets,” Johnston told a news conference. “This man was very, very intent on completing what he set out to do today.”
He said one child was shot and wounded at the school. Another suffered non-life-threatening injuries while riding in a car with his mother, who was severely wounded.
Johnston said the gunman, who has not been identified, went on his shooting spree after stealing a neighbor’s vehicle and then tried to gain access to the school, but was unsuccessful as it was on lockdown.
He said the suspect, who was wearing a military-style vest, left the school to continue his rampage and crashed the vehicle. He then stole a second vehicle and was killed in a shootout with police.
One of the four victims was a woman the gunman had previously been accused of stabbing, Johnston said.
Area resident Brian Flint told local media that his roommate had been shot and killed by the gunman.
“He’s dead. He didn’t make it,” Flint told KCRA, referring to his roommate. “For his family and everything, I feel bad and we’ll be there for them.”
He said the gunman was a neighbor and had “been shooting a lot of bullets lately, hundreds of rounds, large magazines.”
The shooting coincides with a flareup of the long-running debate on the US’ epidemic of gun violence and the ready accessibility of high-powered weapons, less than 10 days after a gunman shot dead 26 people at a church in Texas.
Johnston told reporters that three weapons — a semi-automatic rifle and two handguns — had been recovered from the scene.
The Redding Record Searchlight newspaper said among the wounded was a six-year-old who suffered two gunshot wounds and another child shot in the leg.
Jason Wandel, chief division counsel at the FBI’s Sacramento office, told reporters that agents had been sent to help investigate.
More than 33,000 people die annually in the US from gun-related deaths, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Families of victims of one of the deadliest shootings in modern US history pushed to reinstate a lawsuit to hold a gun manufacturer responsible for the tragedy.
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