shot and wounded two children, aged five and six, in a religious primary school in the North, on Wednesday, before killing himself, local police announced and local media reported on .
The incident took place at a school in the California city of Palermo – with about 5,500 residents – about 90 kilometers north of Sacramento, the Butte County Sheriff’s Office said. “Alleged gunman is dead,” he noted via X, urging parents to go pick up their children from the nearby Oroville Church of the Nazarene. The post did not mention student injuries.
Scene from earlier this afternoon at the Feather River School of Seventh-Day Adventists in Palermo in Butte County. Two students (5 & 6 y.o.) are being treated at out-of-area hospitals for gunshot wounds.
The shooter is dead from a self-inflicted shot.
— Kate Wolffe (@katewolffe)
Butte County Sheriff Cory Honey told local television station KCRA, part of NBC’s national network, that the alleged shooter was found dead of a self-inflicted wound when officers arrived at the Feather River School of Seventh -Day Adventists.
According to Megan McMann, a spokeswoman for the sheriff’s office, who confirmed this information, speaking to the Reuters news agency by phone, the man opened fire on students around 1:09 p.m. (local time).
McMann said that “two students suffered injuries and have been taken to hospital” for first aid and added that she was not aware of the seriousness of their condition.
A sixth grader, with permission from her parents, spoke to us about the moment a gunman opened fire on students at the Feather River 7th Day Adventist school
A 5 and 6 year old are both currently hospitalized, their condition is unknown at this time.
— Hunter Sowards (@huntersowards3)
The motive of the perpetrator is unknown. Honi said police were trying to determine if he was connected to the school, which has about 33 students between the ages of 5 and 13. The gunman may have targeted the school because of its religious affiliation, but is not believed to have a prior relationship with the victims or the school itself, the sheriff noted.
The US, a country where there are more guns in circulation than there are inhabitants (about 400 million), pays an extremely heavy price for their proliferation and characteristic ease of acquisition. Tens of thousands of deaths are recorded each year, incomparably more than in any other economically developed country in the world. Any efforts over the years to impose tighter controls have proven ineffective when not tripped up by the enormous influence of the gun lobby in Congress.
