Two boys, aged 5 and 6, are in “extremely critical condition” after a shooting at a Christian K-8 school in California on Wednesday, authorities said. The gunman was found dead near the playground.
The kindergarteners were attending Feather River School of Seventh-Day Adventists, a school in Palermo with fewer than three dozen students, when the shooting occurred shortly after 1 p.m.
The gunman was dropped off at the school by an Uber driver who is being interviewed by detectives, Butte County Sheriff Kory L. Honea said during a press conference.
Honea said the shooter was in a “cordial” meeting with an administrator about enrolling a child at the school. The sheriff said it appears to have been the man’s first visit to the school and he had no prior connection to the victims.
Police officers stand near a body covered by a tarpaulin outside of Feather River Adventist School.
Michael Weber/The Chico Enterprise-Record via AP
“Whether or not this is a hate crime or whether or not it’s part of some larger scheme, at this point I don’t have enough information to provide an answer to that,” he said.
The shooter’s body was found near the slide and other playground equipment on the grounds of the school, Honea said, and a handgun was found nearby.
‘Most People Were Screaming’
After the shooting, students were taken to a gymnasium where they stayed until school buses arrived to transport them to the Oroville Church of the Nazarene to be reunited with their families, Honea said
Jocelyn Orlando, a sixth grader at the school, described what happened.
“We were going in from lunch recess and basically everybody in my classroom heard shooting and everybody was, most people were screaming,” she told CBS 13.
Emergency personnel state outside the Feather River Adventist School after a shooting Wednesday, December 4, 2024.
Michael Weber/The Chico Enterprise-Record via AP
“We all went into the office, we closed the curtains, locked the doors, basically did what we would do in a school shooting or just still shooting, and then one of the teachers came and we all ran into the gym. We went to the nursery where the little kindergarteners, other people, stay. We locked those doors, we closed those blinds. When the cops were there, we just stayed silent.”
California Governor Gavin Newsom called the shooting “heartbreaking.”
“Once again, a community is shattered by senseless gun violence,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “Our hearts are with the children, their families, and everyone impacted by this horrific tragedy. To the survivors of gun violence: You are never alone. California stands with you.”
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