14 dead, more than a dozen wounded in California shooting
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| Two women embrace at a community center where family members are gathering to pick up survivors after a shooting rampage that killed multiple people and wounded others at a social services center in San Bernardino, Calif., Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2015. |
SAN
BERNARDINO, Calif. (AP) -- As many as three gunmen believed to be
wearing military-style gear opened fire Wednesday at a Southern
California social services center "as if they were on a mission,"
killing at least 14 people and wounding more than a dozen others,
authorities said.
Hours later, police hunting
for the attackers riddled a black SUV with gunfire several miles away,
and one person lay motionless in the street - dead or dying - with a gun
nearby. Officers appeared to remove a second person from the vehicle.
San
Bernardino Police Sgt. Vicki Cervantes said authorities had not
immediately confirmed whether those in the SUV were involved in the
morning carnage. And the hunt went on, apparently for a possible third
gunman. A law officer suffered minor injuries in the afternoon shootout.
It
was the nation's deadliest mass shooting since the Newton, Connecticut,
attack in December 2012 that left 26 children and adults dead.
Police
shed no light on a motive for Thursday's massacre, which came just five
days after a gunman opened fire at Planned Parenthood in Colorado,
killing three.
"They came prepared to do what
they did, as if they were on a mission," San Bernardino Police Chief
Jarrod Burguan said, noting the attackers carried long guns - which can
mean rifles or shotguns.
Witnesses said
several people locked themselves in their offices, desperately waiting
to be rescued by police, after gunfire erupted at the Inland Regional
Center, which serves people with developmental disabilities.
Some people
telephoned their loved ones and whispered to them what was going on.
The
attack took place in a conference area where the San Bernardino County
Department of Public Health was renting space to hold a banquet, said
Marybeth Feild, president and CEO of the center. She said the building
houses at least 25 employees as well as a library and conference center.
FBI
agents and other law enforcement authorities converged on the center
and searched room to room for the attacker or attackers, but it was
feared that they had escaped.
Ten of the
wounded were hospitalized in critical condition, and three were in
serious condition, San Bernardino Fire Chief Tom Hannemann said. Police
cautioned that the numbers of dead and wounded were early estimates that
could change.
No weapons were recovered at
the center, though authorities were investigating unidentified items in
the building and brought in bomb squads, Burguan said.
San
Bernardino police spokesman Sgt. Vicki Cervantes told The Associated
Press there were reports from witnesses of one to three gunmen.
As
the manhunt went on, stores, office buildings and at least one school
were locked down in the city of 214,000 people about 60 miles east of
Los Angeles, and roads were blocked off.
Triage
units were set up outside the center, and people were seen being
wheeled away on stretchers. Others walked quickly from a building with
their hands up. They were searched by police before being reunited with
loved ones.
President Barack Obama was briefed on the attack by his homeland security adviser.
He
said it was too early to know the shooters' motives, but urged the
country to take steps to reduce the frequency of mass shootings. He told
CBS that stricter gun laws, including stronger background checks, would
make the country safer.
"The one thing we do
know is that we have a pattern now of mass shootings in this country
that has no parallel anywhere else in the world, and there's some steps
we could take, not to eliminate every one of these mass shootings, but
to improve the odds that they don't happen as frequently," Obama said.
The
shooting sounded like "an organized plot," and preliminary information
seems to indicate that "this is personal, and there seems to suggest
some element of revenge and retaliation," said Erroll G. Southers,
director of Homegrown Violent Extremism Studies at the University of
Southern California and a former FBI agent.
"What
it says to me, it's someone who's familiar with the facility, it's
someone who knew exactly what room they were going to go to, they knew
exactly which way they needed to escape," Southers said. "They've done
their homework, they know what the response time in this jurisdiction."
Terry
Petit said his daughter works at the center, where social workers find
jobs, housing, transportation and provide programs for people who have
disabilities such as autism, cerebral palsy and epilepsy. He got a text
from her saying she was hiding in the building after hearing gunshots.
Petit
choked back tears as he read the texts for reporters outside the
center. He said she wrote: "People shot. In the office waiting for cops.
Pray for us. I am locked in an office."
Sherry
Esquerra was searching for her daughter and son-in-law, both of whom
work at the center. She said her daughter helps "very disabled" children
and "gets all the services she possibly could for these kids."
"I
just don't understand why somebody would come in and start shooting,"
Esquerra said. She last saw her daughter at Thanksgiving and planned to
see her Friday. When she calls her phone now, "Nothing. I just get her
message. Straight to voicemail."
Marcos
Aguilera's wife was in the building when the gunfire erupted. 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 was able to get out of the
building unharmed.
The social services center
has two large buildings that require a badge to get in, said Sheela
Stark, an Inland Regional Center board member. However, the conference
room where many public events take place - including the banquet on
Wednesday - is usually left open when visitors are expected.
