Thread: Gunman kills 4, wounds others at multiple California sites, including school

ISIS or NRA ? tough call,

"Mental health issues" + Guns = Mass Killing.

It's not a complex equation.

In a feud with his neighbors, so he just decided to go shoot a bunch of folks. The US is beyond hope.

Corning is only 30 miles from Chico where I went to uni. Its just a small very rural town in the Sacramento valley. It really has not changed even after 40 years. Just a junction off of interstate 5 going North.

Originally Posted by SKkin

Or...strategy of tension? (and not just for this particular school situation)

Or perhaps you whackjobs should just wait for the story to come out.

Occams razor and all that.

It is believed the shooting spree began after a domestic row with the gunman's neighbours in Rancho Tehama, a rural community about 120 miles (195km) from Sacramento, on Tuesday morning.
Police said they believed he went on a "bizarre and murderous rampage" after the dispute escalated and he killed a neighbour.
Officials confirmed the gunman had "prior contacts with law enforcement".
The Tehama district attorney told the Sacramento Bee he was being prosecuted on charges relating to a stabbing and assault in January in an incident involving two of his neighbours.

California shooting: Gunman 'tried to enter school' - BBC News

Could help reduce school shootings, but the terrorists will simply head for other soft targets.

And of course, best scenario has it working only until the first seasoned vet goes off the rail and wipes out an entire school.

California mass shooter killed wife, buried her beneath floor

The gunman blamed for the deadly rampage in northern California began his killing spree by fatally shooting his wife and stashing her body beneath the floorboards of their home, police revealed Wednesday.


Word of the grim discovery came a day after Kevin Janson Neal gunned down four other people and attacked an elementary school before he was killed by police.


"We were looking for his wife, couldn't find her yesterday," said Tehama County Assistant Sheriff Phil Johnston said. "We located her dead body concealed under the floor of the residence."


Johnston, who did not identify Neal's wife by name, said police believe she was killed on Monday.


"We are confident he murdered her, shot her ... literally put her body in the floor, covered it up," he said.


Neal, 44, had been out on bail after being charged with stabbing a neighbor when he went on a 45-minute shooting spree Tuesday in the rural community of Rancho Tehama Reserve, about 130 miles north of Sacramento.

Kevin Neal, suspect in California shooting.Tehama County



All the dead were adults. But among the 10 injured were seven children, including four at the school that Neal targeted — and a 2-year-old who was wounded elsewhere, police said.


One child at the school was hit by gunfire and remains in critical condition, Johnston said. The rest were hurt by flying glass.


Asked about a possible motive, Johnston said, "I think he had a desire to kill as many people as he could."


Neal's sister, Sheridan Orr of Cary, North Carolina, described her brother as "an all-American kid" who had been grappling with mental illness and had a hair-trigger temper.


"It had continually deteriorated over, I would say, since October of last year," she told NBC News. "I loved him as my brother but I didn't recognize him. ... He seemed possessed or demonic."


Neal was armed with two handguns and "two semi-automatic rifles with multiround clips" that he had built himself, Johnston said.


"These firearms are manufactured illegally, we believe by him at his home," Johnston said. "So they were obtained in an illegal manner, not through a legal process. They're not registered."


Johnston said Neal was no stranger to law enforcement and that prior to Tuesday his neighbors had "reported shots coming from the residence."
"Every time we responded, we would try to make contact with Mr. Neal," he said. "He was not law enforcement-friendly."
That said, Neal was "not prohibited from owning firearms," Johnston said.


Johnston also praised the staffers at Rancho Tehama Elementary School who rushed their young students into the building and locked down the school when they heard gunfire.


"It is monumental that that school went on lockdown," he said. "I really, truly believe that we would have had a horrific bloodbath in that school if that school hadn't taken the action when they did."


Richard Fitzpatrick, superintendent of the Corning Elementary School District of which Rancho Tehama Elementary School is a part, said that classes begin at 8 a.m. and shortly before that time a shot was heard in the school office, followed by two more.


"At that time, immediately and without any instruction from law enforcement, our school staff went into lockdown," Fitzpatrick said at a news conference Wednesday. The school has just shy of 100 students, he said, with four classrooms, a large playground and one detached classroom.


Fitzpatrick called the actions of school staff heroic. Students who were playing were ushered into classrooms, and students being dropped off were brought into the school office.


After the gunman rammed a vehicle into the gate and emerged with an “AR-type weapon,” he fired at the head custodian who peaked around a building and that diversion of attention gave staff the seconds they needed to finish the lockdown, Fitzpatrick said.


The gunman fired into the school, and a child was struck in the chest and foot and is in fair condition at a hospital, Fitzpatrick said. He said it appears the bullets that struck the child were fired through a wall.


"Love and kindness and selflessness, paired with the ability to professionally do what they did, defeated evil yesterday," Fitzpatrick said. "And the fact is we don't have another one of those stories where multiple children are dead, because of the heroics of my school staff."


Neal's wife was apparently his first victim. "We believe that's what started this whole event," Johnston said.


Neal then killed a neighbor and stole his pickup truck, Johnston said, and while weaving through the subdivision he began firing on other motorists, killing three more people.


"You have to understand, this individual's going down the road picking targets," Johnston said. "He chased people with his vehicle, shooting at them."
Two of the people Neal wounded were a mother and her child.


The woman "did pull out her handgun" but was unable to use it because Neal had fired "about eight rounds into the side panel of her driver's door," Johnston said.


Along the way, Neal crashed the first vehicle, stole another and then headed for the school.


There, Johnston said, Neal drove through a gate and sprayed the school with bullets for six minutes. Once he realized he would not be able to get inside, he left the school grounds.


The rampage ended when police rammed Neal's car and killed him in the ensuing gun battle, Johnston said.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...-floor-n821051

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...-floor-n821051

^^

The solution to gun violence... More guns!

The solution to obesity... Eat more!

The solution to debt... Spend more!

...

California shooter built his own illegal guns, officials say

RANCHO TEHAMA RESERVE, Calif. — Two of the guns used in the Tehama County mass shooting on Tuesday were homemade, while the other two were not registered to the shooter, officials said.


There was also a restraining order issued issued in February that prohibited the shooter from owning guns.


The two homemade AR-15 type semiautomatic rifles were made from parts the shooter, Kevin Janson Neal, purchased, said Phil Johnston, Tehama County’s assistant sheriff.


“These firearms were manufactured illegally, we believe, by him at his home,” Johnston said Wednesday. “So they (the guns) were obtained in an illegal manner, not through a legal process. They are not registered.”

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...ama/868778001/

It is an op-ed but tells the story of how Kevin Neal was freed on bail after stabbing his neighbor.

Tehama shooting is deadly evidence that California needs to reform its bail system

The gunman who went on a deadly shooting rampage in Tehama County on Monday apparently had been out on bail after being charged with stabbing a neighbor — an aspect of the grisly crime that underscores a huge but little discussed problem with money bail systems like California’s.

The argument for bail reform is generally couched in terms of justice for people accused of nonviolent crimes who are kept locked up before trial because they don’t have enough money to post bail. The risk that they will flee or commit new crimes might be infinitesimal, but under our bail system, that doesn’t matter. No money, no release.


Alleged killer Kevin Neal’s rampage may illustrate a stronger point: Just having bail money, or being able to raise it, shouldn’t be enough to secure the release of a person who is suspected of a violent crime, has a reputation of being somewhat unhinged and has a house full of weapons.


There’s not yet enough information on the deadly incident and the circumstances of Neal’s release to say with certainty whether the judge acted properly in setting bail, reportedly at $300,000. Courts in most California counties abide by “schedules” that pair criminal charges with bail amounts and may take into consideration whether the accused has previous convictions. The judge can reject the scheduled amount but may have felt bound by it, or the prosecutor may have failed to argue that the charge against Neal increased his risk. Or there could be other circumstances that have yet to come out. It’s important to note that apart from bail, the court issued protective orders that barred Neal from having guns.


The folly of the money bail system, though, is the notion that high bail amounts somehow protect against the release of a suspect who’s a danger to the community. It has become common for bail in murder cases to be set at $1 million or more in the belief that the dangerous suspect won’t be able to pay it, and so won’t be able to get out. That’s a clever work-around, but it’s also profoundly dishonest. Suspects who are too risky to be released simply shouldn’t be released, no matter how much money they have in the bank, how rich their friends are, or how much a bail bond agent is willing to put up. In Neal’s case, apparently he had the money and was set free.


A bail-reform bill pending in the state Legislature would do what several other states have done: replace the money-based system with one based on pretrial assessments of the risk that suspects pose to the community. Not surprisingly, the bail industry and prosecutors are lobbying lawmakers heavily to reject the measure. Legislators should keep in mind the 15 people – five dead, 10 wounded – who may well be victims of the current system, which set a man free because of the size of his wallet.

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/edito...115-story.html

Originally Posted by Davis Knowlton

In a feud with his neighbors, so he just decided to go shoot a bunch of folks. The US is beyond hope.

Agreed.

I'm bailing out.

Originally Posted by aging one

Corning is only 30 miles from Chico where I went to uni. Its just a small very rural town in the Sacramento valley. It really has not changed even after 40 years. Just a junction off of interstate 5 going North.

Partied many a time up at Chico as well AO. Used to always head through there on my way fishing and sometimes to see my friend up near lake Alamnor. You blink and you missed it. Lots of those small towns in Northern California.

All these mass shootings have gotten way out of hand. My Dad (who I talk to almost daily) says that in SF/San Jose there are daily shootings but because the bar has been raised on what makes news anything less then 3 or so shot and killed isn't newsworthy any longer. Just standard fare.

It's a sad state of affairs that American schools have to have a response plan to an active shooter.

FFS wake up you numbskulls, why the fuck do you want to live like this?

Originally Posted by jabir

Could help reduce school shootings, but the terrorists will simply head for other soft targets.
Place 3 armed veterans in every school ...

...and to every house ... (1 enough)

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

FFS wake up you numbskulls, why the fuck do you want to live like this?

Because Freedom(TM). And guns. Mostly guns.

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

It's a sad state of affairs that American schools have to have a response plan to an active shooter.

FFS wake up you numbskulls, why the fuck do you want to live like this?

Quite right, but for some weird reason millions of numbskulls risk their lives to get there.

Originally Posted by jabir

Quite right, but for some weird reason millions of numbskulls risk their lives to get there.

It's a game of statistics. Yes there are mass shootings. Yes they are tragic but its small in numbers compared to population. Guess the risk is worth it.

I have always had guns. Quite a few in fact but never for the intent of taking out people. Sad part is anybody can get them any time. There is always a way.

Honestly to me the big take away on all these events is, "You never really know anybody and what one might be capable of" . Make someone mad enough they will snap and put any weapon in front of them (Car, Axe, Gun, Club, knife etc) and they might just use it in a fit of rage.

Originally Posted by JPPR2

Honestly to me the big take away on all these events is, "You never really know anybody and what one might be capable of" . Make someone mad enough they will snap and put any weapon in front of them (Car, Axe, Gun, Club, knife etc) and they might just use it in a fit of rage.

And would you rather someone came at you with a car, axe, club or knife; or a fully loaded AR15 with a bump stock?

At the very least they should ban the latter.

They serve no purpose other than as a very effective weapon of mass murder that can kill at a distance.

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

And would you rather someone came at you with a car, axe, club or knife; or a fully loaded AR15 with a bump stock?

At the very least they should ban the latter.

They serve no purpose other than as a very effective weapon of mass murder that can kill at a distance.

I agree. While we have the right to bear arms there were no stipulations on which gun type or style. I fully believe there should be controls of what guns people can own and which ones should be available to the public. We have blurred the lines. I have friends who have modified AR15s and Mac10s. To what point? It was like me. I had a LRSR 50 cal, no real point. Couldn't shoot it in very many places. Hunting rifles, shotguns etc are OK as far as I am concerned.

Anyway. Moot argument. Never going to change.