Butte County Sheriff’s Office believes a gunman may have targeted the California Seventh-day Adventist school where two boys were seriously injured in Wednesday’s shooting because of its affiliation with the church. He said that
Sheriff Cory L. Honea said the shooting occurred around 1 p.m. on the campus of Feather River Adventist School near Palermo after the gunman met with the principal about enrolling students.
“Shortly after that meeting, the principal heard gunshots and screams and that’s when he determined or discovered that the students had been shot,” Honea said.
The two students, 5 and 6-year-old boys, were in “very serious condition” at the hospital Wednesday night, Honea said.
“I can tell you that the injury is very serious,” he said.
When law enforcement arrived, they found the gunman dead from an apparent self-inflicted wound and a handgun nearby.
An investigation into the shooter and his motive was underway.
“Through our partnership with the Seventh-day Adventist Church, we received information that led us to believe that the shooter targeted this school,” Honea said.
Mr Honea cautioned that this was at the very early stages of what he called a complex investigation.
Honea said there is no connection between the shooter and the school victims.
He said investigators are trying to determine whether the meeting over the family’s potential admission was genuine or just a ruse to infiltrate the campus. He said the meeting was amicable and there was nothing involving administrators.
Feather River Adventist School is a kindergarten through eighth grade school with about 35 students, Honea said. It is located in Butte County near Palermo, south of Oroville and about 90 miles north of Sacramento.
Honea said the children who were shot were kindergarten students.
Other children at the school were isolated in the gymnasium until authorities arranged for buses to reunite them with their parents at a church in Oroville.
Jocelyn, a sixth-grader at the school, told NBC affiliate KCRA in Sacramento that she heard gunshots.
“I also saw the gunman walk across the window, pacing back and forth. Then we ran to the gym,” she told the station. “I turned around and saw a shadow with a gun, so I told most of them to run faster.”
The shooting is believed to have occurred at the school, but the sheriff’s office said other law enforcement agencies were notified out of an abundance of caution.
The identity of the gunman was not released Wednesday night. Honea said authorities are withholding names because people believed to be involved are being questioned.
He arrived at school in an Uber. Honea said the driver has been identified and is being questioned about what the suspect may have said during the ride.
Uber did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday night.
Honea said the California Highway Patrol received a 911 call from a cell phone at about 1:08 p.m. and responded immediately with sheriff’s deputies.
Highway Patrol officers were the first to arrive on the scene and found the shooter’s body, police said.
The FBI is assisting with the investigation.
“We are conducting a thorough investigation into this matter to better understand his motives and ideology,” said Sid Patel, special agent in charge of the FBI’s office in Sacramento. What else can help us understand the case?” He said this at a press conference Wednesday night.
Honea described the shooting as horrifying and tragic.
“It really breaks my heart when you’re talking about these little kids who can’t protect themselves,” he said.
