At least five people have died in a California school shooting, sheriff's officials said.
An official with the Tehama County Sheriff's office said the shooter was among the dead after having opened fire at a local elementary school. None of the slain were children “as far as we're aware of”, Assistant Sheriff Phil Johnston told reporters.
The alleged assailant was killed by “law enforcement bullets” after opening fire, Assistant Sheriff Phil Johnston said. Mr Johnston said officers had recovered a semiautomatic rifle and two handguns believed to have been used by the shooter.
It appeared that that incident began as a domestic violence dispute, Mr Johnston said, and escalated as the assailant began “randomly picking targets”.
Mr Johnston said that “a number of students” had been medically evacuated from the school, which had been cleared. Other students were moved to a safe location, he said.
He said around 100 law enforcement officers had been deployed around the town of Rancho Tehama and were investigating at least seven scenes related to the shooting.
“We are spread thin but we have a lot of resources right now”, the deputy said.
An area man identified as Brian Flint told reporter Jim Schultz that he had heard his neighbour was the shooter. He said the neighbour “has been shooting lots of bullets lately — hundreds of rounds”.
“We’ve made it aware that this guy has been crazy and he’s been threatening us”, the man said.
