One of the children was killed at the elementary school and another in a car nearby. The gunman was “randomly picking targets,” County Assistant Sheriff Phil Johnston said, and there may be more victims.
The gunman also wounded several people, some of whom were being treated at Mercy Medical Center.
Reports of shots fired came from near the Rancho Tehama Elementary school about 130 miles north of Sacramento. Parents were dropping children off at the school when the shooting began.
Ferreira ended up in a classroom with more than a dozen students.
“Within a minute we were all buckled in our classrooms and all of a sudden there were gunshots going for a good 20-25 minutes. My window was hit by a few shots and a student was injured in my classroom. He got nailed somehow, it happened all so fast,” said Ferreira.
Initial reports state that children were wounded in the shooting, but Fox News received an update from a source that two children were in fact killed.
Johnston told the Associated Press that the school was cleared by 10 a.m. Johnston also said that police received reports of domestic violence involving the shooter. The gunman’s identity has not yet been released.
Two officers were engaged in a gunfight with the suspect and killed him. A semi-automatic handgun and a rifle were retrieved from the scene.
Governor Jerry Brown issued a statement saying that he and his wife are “saddened to hear about today’s violence in Tehama County, which shockingly involved schoolchildren. We offer our condolences to the families who lost loved ones and unite with all Californians in grief.”
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