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At least 6 dead -- including gunman -- in Santa Monica shootings
Los Angeles News Groupdailynews.com
Posted: 06/07/2013 12:41:38 PM PDT
June 8, 2013 12:26 AM GMTUpdated: 06/07/2013 05:26:24 PM PDT
This dead body may be that of the shooter in the June 7, 2013 incident that left six dead, according to the latest information, at and near Santa Monica College. (Photo courtesy KCRW)
Santa Monica College Shooting
Photos: Shooting at Santa Monica College
Live blog, social media stream
Photos of the scene posted on Twitter
Witness video from @ReidSpeed of nearby fire
Video interviews with witnesses
Video: Chaos at Santa Monica College
Map of where the shooting occurred
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A wave of violence ripped through Santa Monica on Friday, with a series of shootings and a house fire that claimed at least six lives and injured several others, according to police and witnesses.
A suspect, described as a white male about 25-30 years old, clad in all black with a ballistic vest, died after an exchange of gunfire with officers at Santa Monica College, while a second "person of interest" was being questioned in police custody, police said.
Police said the incidents began with a fatal house fire at 2036 Yorkshire Ave. shortly before noon, followed by a series of at least five additional shootings in different locations, culminating in the gunfight with officers at the school library.
"A couple pops, it sounded like a balloon popping," said William Gelhaar,a West Los Angeles resident who was in the SMC library working in a study group when the shooting occurred. "Then I heard a couple more pops, I look up and there are girls screaming, there's shooting and I kinda look and there are other people behind him coming towards us, everybody's panicking and you hear a couple more shots and I pushed the door open to get people out the back, grabbed a couple more people, got them out the back."
Santa Monica Police Chief Jacqueline Seabrooks said it appears the suspect was armed with an AR-15.
She said the department first got a call of shots fired in the 2000 block of Yorkshire, and when officers arrived they found the house on fire. They got additional calls of a possible carjacking, and then shootings as the suspect moved west on Pico, one at 20th and Pico, another at Cloverfield and Pico, one at 20th and Pearl streets, and he was then seen shooting at a passing vehicle and police vehicle near Santa Monica College. The suspect exchanged gunfire with officers from the Santa Monica city and college police departments, fled onto campus, shot a woman on campus, then accosted people in the library and shot at them. He continued to shoot at the library, where officers engaged the suspect and killed him.
The incidents happened about three miles from where President Barack Obama was attending a Democratic Party fundraiser, but the Secret Service said it appeared to be a local incident and the president and the event were not affected.
Three women with serious gunshot wounds were brought to the UCLA Medical Center, two of them in serious condition, according to Dr. Marshall Morgan with UCLA. One died of abdominal wounds and the other is undergoing surgery, he said.
Three additional patients with less serious injuries were being treated at the UCLA Santa Monica hospital, he said.
Russell Mark Fine said his wife, Debra, 50, was driving her 2008 Infiniti west on Kansas Avenue when he saw the shooter firing gunshots near the corner of Yorkshire avenue.
She braked to yell at the man to stop shooting, but he turned and shot at her car, shattering three windows and wounding her. She crashed into the curb on the south side of Kansas Avenue.
Debra Fine was taken to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, where she was expected to survive, her husband said.
"She was just trying to get the guy to stop," her husband said.
The house at the corner of Kansas and Yorkshire appeared charred on one side. At 3:15 p.m., police expanded the crime scene south on Yorkshire to Pico Boulevard.
Lee Peterson, an academic computing instructor at the campus' Cayton Center, said students immediately ran into the building after gunshots were heard.
"I had to check to see if something was coming out of the emergency alert system and since it was like moments afterward, there hadn't, so I locked the building doors and we sheltered the students in place until the police came and evacuated all 48 students and got them all taken care of," Peterson said.
A woman was found with a gunshot wound in a car outside the burned home, which had extensive damage, said Jeff Furrows of the Santa Monica Fire Department.
The shooter was in custody as authorities combed the campus for a possible second shooter.
California Highway Patrol Officer Vince Ramirez said his agency began receiving 911 calls just minutes before noon.
"We understand one shooter was taken into custody shortly after we arrived," he said.
Ramirez said officers were searching the 38-acre campus after witnesses said there may have been a second shooter. He emphasized that those reports were unconfirmed.
The two-year college is located in the middle of homes and strip malls, roughly a mile from the beach.
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