A gunman who wounded two young boys and then killed himself at a northern California elementary school on Wednesday may have targeted the institution because of its affiliation with the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, according to police.
Highway patrol officers were called to reports of shots fired at Feather River Adventist, which lies north of Sacramento, around 1.10pm on Wednesday afternoon.
Police said that the gunman, who has not been named, had opened fire, shooting two kindergarten students before turning the gun on himself.
“When we arrived, we located an individual, an adult male,” Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea told reporters at an evening press conference.
“He was down, appears to have sustained a self-inflicted gunshot wound.”
Two kindergarten students, aged five and six, were rushed to local hospitals after the attack on Feather River Adventist School in Oroville. They remain in critical condition in hospital.
“I’m thankful that they are still alive, but they have a long road ahead of them,” Honea said.
The gunman is not believed to be associated with the school but is said to have visited earlier in the day to attend a meeting with an administrator.
The meeting was about the possibilty of enrolling a family member, although authorities are now seeking to determine whether that was a ploy to gain access to the campus.
Honea said police had identified the suspect and received information indicating he may have targeted the school because of its Seventh-Day Adventist connection. His name has not been released, due to the ongoing investigation.
“We are very, very early on in this investigation. There is still a lot of unknown questions, and answers that we are trying to obtain,” Honea added.
The FBI’s Sacramento office said on Facebook it was aiding local law enforcement and special agent Sid Patel said his fellow investigators were looking into the “entire workup of the subject to get a better understanding of his motivation, ideology.”
Mike Ramsey, Butte County District Attorney, said his office was assisting students and their families.
“That will be going on now for weeks, obviously months,” Ramsey said.
“Not only the children that were previously injured, but those children that saw their classmates gunned down in front of them.”
The Northern California Conference of Seventh-Day Adventists said it was “deeply saddened” by the incident.
“Join us as we lift up these children and their families in prayer,” it said in a statement.
“We are grateful for the brave officers of the Butte County Sheriff’s Department who acted quickly to protect our students.”
