Another campus shootout, gunman kills 4 in Santa Monica

New Delhi, June 8: What started as domestic quarrel ended up as a campus shootout in Santa Monica, California, last night.

A gunman, dressed all in black and carrying a semi-automatic rifle, walked calmly through the Santa Monica College campus in California after killing his father, brother and another person.

He then killed a woman outside the library walks in to the library building, shooting aimlessly. Moments later, he dies in police gunfire.

Trena Johnson, an administrative assistant working in the dean's office in Santa Monica college campus, looked out the window on Friday and saw a man with a "very large gun."

"We saw a woman get shot in the head," said Johnson. "I haven't been able to stop shaking."
Before the rampage was over five people, including the gunman, were killed and five more were injured, police said.

The violence lasted just about 20 minutes. It had started about two kms away when the gunman opened fire at a home. The officials said the killings began as a domestic violence incident and the victims in the home were the gunman's father and brother.

As the house burst into flames, the man, wearing what appeared to be a ballistic jacket, carjacked a woman at gunpoint and directed her to drive to the college campus.

Along the route he shot at a car wounding a woman, who was in critical condition. He fired on a city bus where three women were left with minor injuries.

The gunman also fired on police cars, bystanders and pedestrians, police said.
From there, the chaos shifted to Santa Monica College. In a faculty parking lot on the edge of campus, he fired on two people in a red Ford Explorer that crashed through a block wall. The driver was killed, police said, and a passenger was in critical condition.

College employee Joe Orcutt, who was in the parking lot said the gunman was calm and composed. "He's just standing there, like he's modeling for some ammo magazine," Orcutt said, "seeing who he could shoot, one bullet at a time, like target practice."

The gunman walked then towards the library and shot the woman in front of the library. The gunman went inside the library and kept shooting but apparently hit no one. Dozens of students, studying for final exams, ran for the exits.

Officers entered the library and shot the gunman. On the gunman the police found a canvas bag that included a rifle, a handgun and magazines of ammunition. A small cache of ammunition found in the house that had burned.

OneIndia News