Two Suspects Shot Dead After at Least 14 Killed in California Gun Rampage
- Alex Millson, Esmé E Deprez, James Nash
- Dec 2, 2015
- 2 min read
Two suspects were shot dead by police Wednesday after a gun rampage left at least 14 dead at a social services center in San Bernardino, California.
The suspects, a man and a woman, were armed with assault rifles and handguns and were dressed in "assault-style clothing", said police at a press conference Wednesday evening.
Police said they tracked down the pair following a tip-off that led them to a house in Redlands, San Bernardino. The suspects fled in a vehicle that officers followed before opening fire. One officer was injured in the operation, police added.
At least 14 people were killed and a further 17 wounded when gunmen opened fire at the Inland Regional Center, which serves people with developmental disabilities, at about 11.a.m.
San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan said at a news conference Wednesday evening that police had found what they believed to be an explosive device at the scene of the shooting.
FBI Los Angeles Assistant Director in Charge David Bowdich said they were not willing to state whether the attack was terrorism-related.
"I'm still not willing to say that we know for sure. It is a possibility but we don't know that yet. I'm still not willing to go down that road yet," Bowdich said. "We will go down that road. We'll get there when we get there."
San Bernardino Mayor Carey Davis, in a city hall news conference, praised the response of police and paramedics. He did not offer information on the incident, referring questions to police.
"The city is on alert. We need to stay cautious but it's not a time to panic,'' he said.
Terry Petit’s daughter works at the center, and she texted him that she was hiding in the building after hearing gunshots, the Associated Press reported. Petit choked back tears as he read the texts for reporters outside the center: "People shot. In the office waiting for cops. Pray for us."
Marcos Aguilera’s wife was in the building when the gunfire erupted, the wire service reported. He said a shooter entered the building next to his wife’s office and opened fire.
"They locked themselves in her office. They seen bodies on the floor," Aguilera told KABC-TV, adding that his wife escaped unharmed.
The chief executive officer of the Inland center, Marybeth Feild, said the focus was on a building that houses at least 25 employees as well as a library and conference center, according to the Associated Press.
Just Tuesday, the center posted on Twitter a video of their holiday party, which shows workers dancing with the disabled, many of them in wheelchairs, to Kool & The Gang’s “Celebration.”
Sandy Bonilla, a director at the Urban Conservation Corps of the Inland Empire, a charter school a block from the shooting, said it was on lockdown and the area looked like a battle zone.
The shooting came as authorities continue to probe the motivations of Robert Dear, the 57-year-old who is in custody after the Friday shooting of three and wounding of nine in a clinic run by the Planned Parenthood women’s health group in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
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