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Details began to emerge Thursday morning of a mass shooting at a Southern California office building that left four people dead, including a nine-year-old boy, the night before.
Police said the suspect in the shooting in the city of Orange, south of Los Angeles, knew all of the victims through a “professional and personal relationship.” A fifth victim was hospitalized in critical condition.
The incident was the third American mass shooting in two weeks, following the attacks in Atlanta and Boulder, Colorado.
Authorities said when police arrived at the two-story office building around 5:30 p.m., the shooting was in progress and the suspect had used chains to lock the front door. Officers opened fire and were then able to make their way inside the yard. There, police found a nine-year-old boy who had died and an injured woman beside him.
“It appears that a little boy died in his mother’s arms as she tried to save him during this horrific massacre,” said Todd Spitzer, the Orange County district attorney.
The other deceased victims were two women and a man, who were found at the offices of Unified Homes, a mobile home real estate agent. Police said the mother of the nine-year-old worked at the company, but authorities have yet to reveal the identities of the victims.
The suspect has been identified as Aminadab Gasiola Gonzalez, 44. Its specific relationship with the company and the victims was unclear. He was injured and taken to hospital in critical condition, although police did not say whether the officers shot him or whether the injuries were self-inflicted. His exact motives were not clear.
California Governor Gavin Newsom in a tweet called the killings “gruesome and heartbreaking.”
“Our hearts are with the families affected by this terrible tragedy tonight,” he said.
Congresswoman Katie Porter, a California Democrat whose district includes the city of Orange, said on Twitter that she was “deeply saddened.”
“Enough is enough. We need to do something about the guns on our streets,” California Senator Dianne Feinstein said.
People had gathered outside the building on Wednesday evening in hopes of getting to know their loved ones.
Paul Tovar told KTLA-TV that his brother owns Unified Homes. “He’s not answering his phone, neither is my niece,” Tovar said. “I’m pretty scared and worried … right now I’m really praying very hard.”
Cody Lev, who lives across the street from the office building, told the Orange County Register he heard three widely spaced thuds, then three more. There was a period of silence, and then Lev said he heard many gunshots, followed by sirens and more gunshots.
The killings followed a mass shooting at a Boulder supermarket last week that left 10 people dead. A week earlier, six Asian women were among eight people killed at three Atlanta-area spas.
Orange is approximately 30 miles from Los Angeles and is home to approximately 140,000 people. Jennifer Amat, an Orange police lieutenant, said the shooting was the worst in town since December 1997, when a gunman armed with an assault rifle attacked a maintenance yard at the Department of Transportation in California.
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