7 killed in US shootout; Indian-American girl among injured

Washington, Apr 3: An 19-year-old Indian-American student sustained bullet injuries after one of her classmates forced students to stand against a wall and opened indiscriminate fire, killing seven at a religious college in California.

Dawinder Kaur was shot in her right arm near elbow and was nursing her injuries at a local hospital in Oakland, where the shooting incident happened yesterday, sending shock waves across the country.

The alleged suspect has been arrested by the Oakland Police, which local media outlets identified as 43-year-old One Gohan American of Korean origin. Several of the victims were students of the Oikos University a small religious college in this Southern Californian city. According to Oakland Tribune, Kaur told her family members that the alleged gunman, who had been absent from his class for past several months, suddenly appeared yesterday and ordered all the students to line up against a wall.

"He showed his gun and then the students started running," Kaur told relatives. She was shot in the arm as she helped a friend who had fallen on the classroom's floor; she then ran outside and called her brother, Paul Singh, the daily reported. "She told me that a guy went crazy and she got shot. She was running. She was crying; she was bleeding, it was wrong," Singh told Oakland Tribune.

Five people were declared dead on the spot, while two of the five wounded succumbed to injuries at the hospital. Balvir Singh, Kaur's father, said that he was lucky that his daughter survived. The family is "lucky she is alive," he said.

PTI