Dennis RomeroAs many as six four people were killed by a gunman who lost his own life after police confronted him and fatally shot him on the campus of Santa Monica College today.
Here's what appears to have happened:
At 11:52 a.m. authorities received a report of shots fired along with a fire at a home at 2036 Yorkshire Avenue in Santa Monica, where “multiple” victims were found dead inside, Santa Monica Fire Department Chief Scott Ferguson told reporters.
Reports suggest that the victims were the father and brother of the suspect; neighbors told Fox 11 News that the home was the site of a bitter divorce.
A suspect slowly marched down the street holding an AR-15 semiautomatic assault rifle according to Fox 11. He opened fire on a woman before carjacking another victim and heading west, a witness told the station.
At one point, witnesses said, the gunman, dressed in military-style black clothing and wearing a ballistic vest, jumped out of a car and opened fire near Santa Monica College.
A Big Blue Bus was targeted and the driver sped off, ending up near a Ralphs market on Olympic Boulevard.
There was a shooting at 20th Street and Pico, a fatal shooting at Cloverfield and Pico boulevards and then at least two more people were one more person was shot dead at 19th and Pearl streets, police said.
By this time cops were after the suspect and he went onto campus, authorities said. There he opened fire on a woman who was collecting cans and then went inside the library, nearby, and he attempted to keep shooting when cops confronted him and killed him, police said.
[Added at 8:53 p.m.]: That woman died at a hospital, police said tonight.
See also: Santa Monica College Shooting: Custodian Witnessed Point-Blank Shooting.
A separate “subject of interest” was then detained by police, Santa Monica police Chief Jacqueline A. Seabrooks told reporters. [Added at 8:53 p.m.]: That man was questioned and released, police said.
It appeared that about 6 5 people, including the alleged shooter, were dead at the scenes, including the house, with one more victim succumbing to injuries at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center.
In the afternoon, meanwhile, the LAPD fielded calls of a man with a gun who appeared to fit the description of the shooter and a man down near Centinela Avenue and Palms Boulevard in Mar Vista, just a few miles from SMC, Capt. Ed Pape said.
Cops shut down the street near an apartment building there and searched the area for a suspect, a victim and a car that might have been related to the SMC attack, but found nothing, he said.
A residence that might be connected to someone from the burned house was not searched, however, and Pape referred questions about whether cops sought a warrant to the Santa Monica department.
KCAL 9 suggested that the Centinela-Palms apartment belonged to the suspect's mother, who had moved to the area after that divorce mentioned above.
Santa Monica College was closed through the weekend, administrators say.
See our original, breaking reports on the Santa Monica attack here.
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