OAKLAND, Calif. - A former student at a small Christian university had gone to the building to find a female administrator when he opened fire, killing at least seven people, police said Tuesday.
Oakland Police Chief Howard Jordan said at a news conference that the suspect, 43-year-old One L. Goh, began randomly shooting people after learning the administrator was not there.
Jordan said Goh went to the school in Oakland with "the intent of locating an administrator. He then went through the entire building systematically and randomly shooting people."
"We've learned that the suspect was upset with the administration at the school. He was also upset that students in the past, when he attended the school, mistreated him, disrespected him, and things of that nature," Jordan said on "Good Morning America." ''He was having, we believe, some behavioral problems at the school and was asked to leave several months ago.
"We've learned that this was a very chaotic, calculated and determined gentleman that came there with a very specific intent to kill people, and that's what his motive was and that's what he carried out," Jordan added.
Goh left behind a string of debts and minor traffic citations in his former home state of Virginia and was evicted from one apartment complex in the state, according to ABC News Bay Area affiliate KGO.
Soon after the shooting Monday, heavily armed officers swarmed the tiny college of fewer than 100 students in a large industrial park near the Oakland airport. For a time, police believed the gunman could still be inside. But he wasn't.
Instead, officers said he apparently drove about three miles from campus before surrendering to officers inside a supermarket.
Those connected to the school, including the founder and several students, described the gunman as a former nursing student. The chief said Goh is a South Korean national who's a former student of the university.
Police first received a 911 call at 10:33 a.m. reporting a woman on the ground bleeding. As more calls came in from the school, the first arriving officer found a victim suffering from a life-threatening gunshot wound, he said.
-
Utah soldier finally awarded Bronze Star for service in Iraq
Published Jun 19, 2013 01:01:03AM -
Woman charged with felony animal torture for killing dog with insecticide
Published Jun 18, 2013 10:19:03PM -
Husband charged with abusing sick wife
Published Jun 18, 2013 10:01:02PM -
NSA director says plot against Wall Street foiled
Published Jun 18, 2013 09:59:03PM
More officers arrived and formed a perimeter around the school on the belief that the suspect was still inside, he said.
"Potential victims remained inside the building either trapped by a locked door which officers were unable to open," Jordan said. Others were unable to flee because they were injured, he said.
Jordan said there were about 35 people in or near the building when gunfire broke out. Of the seven fatalities, five died at the scene and another two at the hospital. The wounded victims are in stable condition, and at least one person has been released from the hospital. He told GMA on Tuesday the victims ranged in age from 21 to 40.
"This unprecedented tragedy was shocking and senseless," Jordan said.
Art Richards said he was driving by the university on his way to pick up a friend when he spotted a woman hiding in the bushes. He pulled over, and when he approached her, she said, "I'm shot" and showed him her arm.
"She had a piece of her arm hanging out," Richards said, noting that she was wounded near the elbow.
As police arrived, Richards said he heard 10 gunshots coming from inside the building. The female victim told him that she saw the gunman shoot one person point-blank in the chest and one in the head.
Tashi Wangchuk, whose wife attended the school and witnessed the shooting, said he was told by police that the gunman first shot a woman at the front desk, then continued shooting randomly in classrooms.
Wangchuk said his wife, Dechen Wangzom, was in her vocational nursing class when she heard gunshots. She locked the door and turned off the lights, Wangchuk said he was told by his wife.
The gunman "banged on the door several times and started shooting outside and left," he said. Wangchuk said no one was hurt inside his wife's classroom, but that the gunman shot out the glass in the door. He said she did not know the man.
"She's a hero," he said of his wife.
Television footage showed bloodied victims on stretchers being loaded into ambulances. Several bodies covered in sheets were laid out on a patch of grass at the school. One body could be seen being loaded into a van.
Myung Soon Ma, the school's secretary, said she could not provide any details about what happened at the private school, which serves the Korean community with courses from theology to Asian medicine.
Next Page >Copyright 2013 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
