Two adults were killed, and two students were injured in an apparent murder-suicide attack inside North Park School in San Bernardino, California.
One of the deceased adults is a teacher, and the two student’s condition was not immediately disclosed. Police Chief Jarrod Burguan said on Twitter that “the suspect is down” and that there was no further threat to North Park School.
The two injured students were taken to a hospital
The two injured students were airlifted by a MediVac helicopter to a trauma center, according to Maria Garcia, San Bernardino City Unified School District spokeswoman, who also told news station KNBC TV that they believed a domestic dispute caused the attack.
Garcia stated that the other students from North Park School were safe and they were being taken to a local college campus. Footage taken from a helicopter showed students gathered on a field while school buses lined up to take them to another location. Burguan then tweeted that the students had been taken to Cajon High School for safety.
“We believe the teacher knew who the shooter was,” said Garcia.
According to Burguan, they believe that the gunman was among those who were possibly down. The shooting took place inside of a classroom. Garcia said that the third victim is a teacher, and she added that at the moment they did not know the age of the injured students or the grade that the teacher taught. Authorities have not disclosed whether the two adults who were found dead were the teacher and the gunman, or if they were other victims.
North Park Elementary School does not have campus security
Garcia said that the North Park Elementary School does not have uniformed police officers or campus security, unlike middle schools and high schools in the district.
The San Bernardino County Fire confirmed that there were multiple victims at 10:45 a.m., but they did not provide a count. The school district tweeted that parents should go to Cajon High School and have a picture ID to pick up their children. Some parents who were interviewed by news station said that their kids were too young to carry mobile phones, so they hadn’t been able to contact them to see if they were safe.
Authorities have yet to release the identity of the victims and the perpetrator, as well as the medical condition of the two injured students.
“If parents are looking to reunite with their children, all kids are being transported to Cajon High School,” said Garcia.
San Bernardino suffers another tragedy
San Bernardino has a population of around 216,000 people, and it is known for its high rates of violent crimes, especially homicides. In December 2015, Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife Tashfeen Malik conducted a terror attack in the city that led to the death of 14 people and wounded 22 people at a meeting of San Bernardino County employees. The terrorists were killed by authorities later in that day, following a shootout that broke off between the attackers and San Bernardino’s police officers.
Source: Sun Herald