A man with a semi-automatic rifle killed at least four people and wounded several others Friday as he carried out a deadly rampage across several blocks of the Pico Neighborhood before police shot him dead in the Santa Monica College Library.
Police received a report of shots fired at a home on the 2000 block of Yorkshire Avenue at 11:52 a.m., said Police Chief Jacqueline Seabrooks.
When officers arrived, they found the home in flames and called in the Santa Monica Fire Department, which moved to contain the blaze.
When inside, firefighters found at least two dead, officials said. There is speculation that the deceased were related to the shooter — his father and brother.
Police had not released the identity of the shooter or the victims by presstime.
Officers also received word of a car jacking, which the Associated Press reports was done by the shooter.
Random shootings left two dead at the intersection of Pico and Cloverfield boulevards and one at the Santa Monica College campus, Seabrooks said. Another woman succumbed to her injuries at the Ronald Reagan-UCLA Medical Center.
As the suspect, described as a while male between 25 and 30, moved down Pico Boulevard armed with an AR 15 assault rifle, he shot at a passenger vehicle, a Big Blue Bus and a police car, Seabrooks said.
SMPD officers and Santa Monica College Police officers responded to Parking Lot 1 on the east side of the college campus, saw the suspect and exchanged fire with him.
He fled onto campus and it is believed he ran through the liberal arts building before heading toward the library, where he shot a woman and “accosted others at the library and attempted to shoot them,” Seabrooks said.
“We saw a woman get shot in the head,” said administrative assistant Trena Johnson, who looked out the window of the dean’s office, where she works, when she heard gunfire. “I haven’t been able to stop shaking.”
Inside the library, students reported hearing gunfire and screams.
“I was totally scared to death and I can’t believe it happened so fast,” said Vincent Zhang, a 20-year-old economics major who said he heard a woman pleading, “No, no. Please, no.”
Officers engaged with the suspect and shot and killed him on scene.
Officers from multiple agencies including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives, Los Angeles Police Department, Los Angeles Sheriff’s Office and others assisted with the investigation, which is still ongoing.
As of 5 p.m. Friday, officers cleared 90 percent of the SMC campus. There was also one person of interest in custody as law enforcement officials tried to determine if he played a role in the shootings.
“We are not convinced 100 percent that the suspect killed operated in a solo or alone capacity,” Seabrooks said.
All public schools in the city were locked down, including Santa Monica High School where seniors and their parents were anxiously awaiting graduation ceremonies. The lockdown was eventually lifted and the graduation was held as scheduled
Seabrooks cautioned reporters to be patient, as the investigation was still in its infancy.
She, Fire Chief Scott Ferguson and SMC Police Chief Albert Vasquez all expressed their condolences to the victims and their families.
Assemblymember Richard Bloom also released a statement Friday promising to “assist in any way possible.”
“My thoughts are with the victims and their families following today’s senseless violence in Santa Monica. This incident unfolded within a few blocks of my home of 32 years. Yet, no community should have to endure something like this,” Bloom said.
Campus officials had crisis counselors available to students at the Bundy Campus Friday evening and said they would be there all weekend from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. There is also be a crisis hotline for students and faculty — (866) 315-7370.
Students were in the middle of finals, which have since been canceled. There is no word yet on when they will be rescheduled.
The shooting spree unfolded about 3 miles from where President Barack Obama was attending a fundraising luncheon.
Secret Service spokesman Max Milien said the agency was aware of the shooting but it had no impact on the president’s event.
Jerry Cunningham Rathner, who lives near the house where the killings began, said she heard gunshots and came out onto her porch to see a man shooting at the residence. Soon, the home erupted in flames and was billowing smoke.
The gunman, wearing an ammunition belt and ballistics vest, went to the corner and pointed a military-style rifle at a woman in a car and told her to pull over, Rathner said. He then signaled to a second car, also driven by a woman, to slow down and began firing into the vehicle.
“He fired three to four shots into the car — boom, boom, boom, right at her,” said Cunningham, who went to the woman’s aid and saw she was wounded in the shoulder.
“I can’t believe she didn’t have worse injuries,” Cunningham said.
She said the gunman then abducted the woman in the first car and drove away.
From there, the scene shifted to Santa Monica College, located in a neighborhood of strip malls and homes more than a mile inland from the city’s famous Santa Monica Pier, Third Street Promenade and its expansive, sandy beaches.
The suspect exited the car at Pico and Cloverfield boulevards and opened fire on nearby vehicles and a Big Blue Bus.
Suja Lowenthal with the bus system said two passengers on the Line 7 bus were wounded. One was reportedly grazed at the temple while another had a piece of glass hit the back of their head. They were transported to a nearby hospital for treatment.
The suspect then went onto campus, shooting as he went, and went into the library.
James Gillespie, 20, a second-year kinesiology student, was in the library at the time of the shooting. He was in the computer lab at the time on a social networking site when he saw people running in the halls around him.
He ducked down, stayed there for 20 seconds, got up and started going outside.
“I heard a shotgun blast, and then eight to 10 handgun shots,” Gillespie said.
Officials diverted students to the football field through the parking structure, Gillespie said.
As Gillespie ran across campus, he said he saw a car in front of the English building that was riddled with bullet holes, had shattered windows and a baby’s car seat in the back.
Another student, Khwanfa Wilepananon, said he and a friend were on the library’s third floor when they heard a loud bang and a woman’s scream coming from the first floor. As he and a friend fled downstairs, he said they heard two shots.
“It was so scary,” said Wilepananon. “It was so dark and I was scared. We didn’t know what to do.”
This story originally appeared at smdp.com.
