PALERMO, Calif. (AP) — Two youngsters have been in “extremely critical condition” after being shot at a tiny non secular Okay-8 college in Northern California and the gunman died on the scene, apparently from a self-inflicted gunshot, police mentioned.
The gunman could have focused the Feather River Faculty of Seventh-Day Adventists in Palermo on Wednesday due to its non secular affiliation, however isn’t believed to have had a previous connection to the victims or the varsity, Butte County Sheriff Kory L. Honea mentioned. He didn’t clarify additional.
“Whether or not this is a hate crime or whether or not it’s part of some sort of larger scheme at this point I don’t have enough information to provide an answer to that,” he mentioned.
The wounded youngsters, boys ages 5 and 6, are kindergartners on the college and have been being handled at a trauma middle within the Sacramento space, officers mentioned.
“I am thankful that they’re still alive, but they’ve got a long road ahead of them,” Honea mentioned.
The taking pictures occurred shortly after 1 p.m. on the personal Christian college with fewer than three dozen college students in Palermo, which has about 5,500 folks and is about 65 miles (104 kilometers) north of Sacramento.
It was the the most recent amongst dozens of college shootings throughout the U.S. lately, together with particularly lethal ones in Newtown, Connecticut, Parkland, Florida, and Uvalde, Texas. The shootings have set off fervent debates about gun management and frayed the nerves of fogeys whose youngsters are rising up accustomed to doing energetic shooter drills of their school rooms.
However college shootings have finished little to maneuver the needle on nationwide gun legal guidelines. Firearms have been the main reason behind demise amongst youngsters in 2020 and 2021, in line with KFF, a nonprofit that researches well being care points.
Honea mentioned the gunman was dropped off by an Uber driver who’s being interviewed by detectives.
He mentioned the shooter was in a gathering with an administrator about enrolling a baby on the college, which he described as “cordial.” However it appears that evidently was his first go to to the varsity and he had no prior connection to the victims. Shortly after that, pictures rang out, Honea mentioned.
The gunman’s physique was discovered close to the slide and different playground tools on the grounds of the varsity, which abuts ranchland the place cattle graze. A handgun was discovered close by, Honea mentioned.
Honea mentioned they have been attempting to contact the shooter’s household earlier than releasing his title.
Laurie Trujillo, a spokesperson for the Northern California Convention of Seventh-Day Adventists, mentioned in a press release that they have been “deeply saddened by the events that occurred today at our Feather River school.” She added that they’re grateful to the sheriff’s workplace for appearing rapidly to guard the scholars.
The Seventh-Day Adventist Church is a Christian denomination through which members contemplate the Bible their solely creed and imagine that the second coming of Christ is close to. The Feather River Faculty has been open since 1965, in line with its web site.
After the taking pictures, authorities rushed college students initially to a gymnasium the place they stayed till a bus arrived to take them off the grounds and to the Oroville Church of the Nazarene to be reunited with their households, Honea mentioned.
Travis Marshall, the senior pastor for the Oroville Church of the Nazarene, known as the reunification between mother and father and their youngsters “very moving.”
“Some of the children were incredibly emotional,” he mentioned. “One woman was raising her hands up, praising the Lord” when she discovered her baby.
“We were going in for lunch recess and basically everybody in my classroom heard shooting and most people were screaming,” she mentioned. “We all went into the office, we closed the curtains, locked the doors, basically did what we would do in a school shooting, and then one of the teachers came and we all ran into the gym.”
Assemblyman James Gallagher, whose space consists of Palermo, mentioned his “heart is breaking for everyone impacted by this tragedy.”
“As a community, we’ll all be hugging our loved ones closer today as we pray for the victims and try to make sense of something so senseless,” he mentioned in a press release.