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发帖数: 7853 | 1 Gunman in Northern California killed wife before going on rampage
By Ray Sanchez, Faith Karimi and Jason Hanna, CNN
Updated 3:00 PM ET, Wed November 15, 2017
(CNN)Kevin Neal's deadly shooting rampage in Northern California may have
been prompted by the fatal shooting of his wife, authorities said Wednesday.
Neal, identified as the gunman who killed four people in a string of
shootings Tuesday, shot and killed his wife the previous night and concealed
her body under a floor in his home, Tehama County Assistant Sheriff Phil
Johnston said.
The discovery of her body brought the death toll to five.
"We believe that's probably what started this whole event," Johnston said of
the wife's shooting.
Neal had been out of bail on an assault with a deadly weapon charge from
January, officials said.
Before police shot him dead, Neal injured at least 10 others in a string of
shootings that spanned at least seven sites in the small community of Rancho
Tehama, west of Corning, police said. Those locations include a locked
elementary school that the shooter fired into from the outside, injuring a
boy.
The shootings started in Neal's neighborhood shortly before 8 a.m., where he
killed a woman neighbor who had a restraining order against him, Johnston
said. Neal had been arrested and charged in January on suspicion of
assaulting her with a deadly weapon, he said.
He then stole a pickup truck and went on a rampage in town, shooting at
homes, motorists and eventually the school, apparently at random, Johnson
said.
"This guy was bent on ... driving by residences and arbitrarily shooting at
them," the assistant sheriff said.
Still, Johnston said it "could have been so much worse." Wearing a tactical
vest and armed with extra magazines, the gunman attempted to enter
classrooms at Rancho Tehama Elementary School.
Ramming through the school's gate
The gunman arrived at the small elementary school -- about 2 miles from his
home -- just before classes were to begin. The staff, having heard gunfire
nearby or been alerted to it, had already begun to take action.
Doors were locked and students rushed inside, where they hit the floor
underneath desks and tables.
The shooter rammed the stolen pickup through the school's locked gate,
walked into the schoolyard and fired his rifle through windows and walls.
He could not get inside and left six minutes later, apparently frustrated,
Johnston said.
One student was in stable condition after being wounded by gunfire, the
school district said. Others were hurt by flying glass.
Before reaching the school, the gunman had fired from his vehicle at passing
motorists and homes, Johnston said. At one point he shot and severely
injured a woman who was driving her three children to school.
The woman was being treated for life-threatening injuries. A boy who was in
the vehicle was hit by gunfire or shrapnel but was not seriously wounded,
according to Johnston.
"She has no clue who he was," the official said.
After leaving the school, the shooter intentionally crashed the pickup into
a car. He exited the truck and gunned down at least one person there,
Johnston said.
He then stole someone else's sedan and "went back on his rampage," Johnston
said.
Eventually, two police officers encountered the gunman at an intersection.
They returned fire, killing him, the assistant sheriff said.
Aside from the first shooting in his neighborhood, the killer appeared to be
shooting people at random, Johnston said, and did not seem to have any
connections to the school either.
"This is an individual who armed himself, I think with the motive of getting
even with his neighbors, and when it went that far (that someone was killed
) he just went on a rampage," Johnston said.
"I have to say this incident, as tragic and as bad as it is, could have been
so much worse," he said, applauding the quick thinking of the school staff.
Mom raced back to school to warn people
A fearless mother may have also helped warn staff at the school about the
danger.
Sara Gonzalez said she had dropped her daughter off at the school when the
gunman attempted to shoot her as their vehicles passed. She said thinks the
gunman's windshield stopped the bullet.
She turned her vehicle around.
"I went to my daughter's school and started honking, making people know what
was going on," she said.
Gonzalez said the gunman fired at her as she tried to get out and find her
daughter. She saw the man's face but he said nothing.
Jessie Sanders told CNN affiliate KCRA he tried to draw the gunman's
attention away from the school.
He said he ran over to the school when he heard the crack of a semi-
automatic rifle.
"When I get there, the dude was shooting through the windows," he told the
Sacramento TV station. "And I said, 'Hey why don't you shoot this way
instead.' "
Sanders said a bullet grazed his right forearm.
Inside the school the children tried to stay low.
Gonzalez's daughter, Arianna Ibarra, was on the floor with her fourth-grade
class.
"Our teacher told us to go under our desk and keep flat in case he comes
inside," Arianna said.
The teacher blocked the door with a computer, the 10-year-old said.
Three firearms among the weapons recovered
It was unclear whether the gunman went to the school looking for someone he
knew.
"We have not connected him with any one person in the school," Johnston said.
A semi-automatic rifle and two handguns believed to be used by the gunman
have been recovered, according to Johnston.
CNN's Sarah Aarthun, Steve Almasy, Mayra Cuevas and Dan Simon contributed to
this report. |
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