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This photo, released by the Santa Monica Police department, shows the gunman entering the Santa Monica College library on June 7. The gunman’s shooting spree began in a home near the college, where two were found dead, and ended when police killed him in the college library. Santa Monica police have identified the suspect as John Zawahri.

The gunman enters the college library wearing black fatigues.

The gunman, carrying what appears to be an assault rifle (circled), enters the library.

Santa Monica police officially identified the suspect in the shootings as 23-year-old John Zawahri.

The Santa Monica police released this photo showing ammunition, magazines and guns believed to have been dropped by the gunman.

Los Angeles Police Department officers along with Los Angeles County Sheriff deputies search the campus of Santa Monica College after a reported shooting on Friday, June 7.

iReporter Daniel Kraft took this image of what he believes to be the shooter’s body as Kraft was being evacuated from the campus by a SWAT team.

A car with windows shattered by bullets sits in front of a partially burned house where two bodies where found. Authorities believe the incident may be related to the shooting on the campus of Santa Monica College.

An inspector stands outside the partially burnt house where two bodies were discovered near the Santa Monica College campus.

A Los Angeles County SWAT team sharpshooter circles the campus in a helicopter.

Los Angeles Police Department officers deploy around the campus.

Students rush to safety after shots were fired.

California Highway Patrol officers work to contain the scene.

Los Angeles County Sheriff deputies search the grounds.

Backpacks and food are left behind after students fled the campus.

Police gather during the search of the campus.

SWAT officers conduct a search at the college after the shooting.

Women leave campus after the shooting.

A police officer helps search the campus.

During the campus lock down, iReporter Aleksandr Kats photographed local law enforcement trying to secure the grounds of Santa Monica College.

iReporter Nathaniel Westveer photographed the chaotic scene right outside his office building, which is 100 feet away from the crime scene at Santa Monica College. He says during the shooting, police closed down the intersection as they combed the adjacent office complex with their guns drawn.

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Santa Monica, California (CNN) — By all accounts, suspected Santa Monica shooter John Zawahri was ready to inflict maximum harm.

He had multiple firearms and about 1,300 rounds of ammunition. Also, apparently, he had the capacity to kill.

Police say he killed his father and brother, along with three others, during a Friday afternoon rampage in Santa Monica, California.

But by some strokes of good luck, or because of quick thinking, Zawahri was not able to kill more.

“As soon as I looked him straight in the eye, I saw what he was going to do,” said Deborah Fine.

She told CNN she saw the gunman pull over another woman and hold a rifle to her head.

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5th victim dead in Santa Monica shooting

“I thought to myself, ‘What are you doing? Why are you pointing this gun at her?’ And so I put on my accelerator, I hit the gas, and I got in between the two of them,” she said.

The bold move quickly turned the gunman’s attention to Fine.

“I’ll never forget his eyes. They were just so intense and so cold,” she said.

“I was somebody in the way, and I was somebody to get out of the way. And that’s when he raised his rifle.”

Bullets struck Fine three to four times across her body.

She balks at the idea that anybody might call her a hero.

“It really was just an anger that came over me that he wouldn’t leave her alone, and she was young,” said Fine, a mother of twins.

“I get angry and take on the bully,” she said. “I’m glad I did what I did, but thank God, I’m alive.”

‘He let me go’

Laura Sisk was the woman Fine saw get pulled over.

“He just appeared in the middle of the road,” Sisk told CNN’s AC360 Monday night.

He screamed at her to get out of the car and to pick up a heavy bag of his off the ground and put it in her car.

“I suggested he take my car and go. He didn’t like that idea and said that I was going to drive him and made me get in. And then he got in after shooting a little bit more,” Sisk said.

During the drive, he gave her directions — go right, go left, go straight. At an intersection, he opened fire on a bus.

Sisk said she was shaking hysterically. The gunman kept telling her to calm down.

“I just kept saying don’t hurt me, I have children, don’t hurt me,” she said.

“He let me go … I don’t know why. I don’t know if it was because I had said I had children and he bonded with me on that, I don’t know.”

Spree leaves five dead

Police say the spate of violence that left this beachfront city reeling on Friday involved as many as six incidents over 13 minutes.

It started at the Zawahri family house on Yorkshire Avenue shortly before noon and ended a mile away in the college library where students were studying for finals.

Officers were dispatched to the house to respond to reports of shots fired. There, they found the 1,000-square-foot home in flames.

Inside, firefighters would later find two bodies in a back room — those of Zawahri’s father, Samir, and his brother Chris.

Both had been shot.

Source: Santa Monica gunman previously hospitalized for mental health

Outside the house, police came across Fine.

She had interrupted the gunman’s carjacking, but his rampage was just beginning.

He got into the vehicle and forced Sisk to drive the short distance to Santa Monica College, which Zawahri attended as recently as 2010.

Timeline: School violence in the U.S.

During their ride, 911 calls poured in, keeping police on the gunman’s path.

As the car headed toward the campus of the community college, where 30,000 students are registered, he opened fire on a passing bus, slightly wounding three people.

He then got out and shot into a red Ford Explorer, carrying 26-year-old Marcela Franco and her father, 68-year-old Carlos Navarro Franco.

Carlos Franco worked as a groundskeeper at the college. They were on campus to get textbooks for Marcela.

Both died.

“‘Broken’ is not a strong enough word to describe us,” said relative Margret Quinonez Perez.

iReporter: There was a body on the corner

‘Miraculous’ more people weren’t hurt

After shooting into the SUV, the gunman abandoned his hijacked vehicle. In a stroke of good luck for the driver, he left her unhurt.

Dressed in black, the gunman then walked the campus, “shooting as he went along,” Santa Monica Police Chief Jacqueline Seabrooks said.

Outside the school library, he saw a woman and “executed her,” the police chief said.

Her death was the fifth of the rampage.

Authorities identified her Monday as Margarita Gomez. She was a resident of Santa Monica but not a student at the college.

Finally, the gunman walked into the library.

“He attempted to kill several library patrons who were hiding in a safe room. It’s miraculous that those individuals were not physically injured,” said Seabrooks.

Mass shootings in the U.S.

Inside, Priscilla Morales and her friends hid.

“I was so scared and thought literally I was going to die,” she said.

By then, the gunman had returned to the main area of the library and was met by three police officers.

“Drop it!” Morales said she heard police say.

Then she heard gunshots and a man’s screams.

Officers had shot and killed 23-year-old Zawahri.

Why does America lead the world in school shootings?

The suspected gunman’s mother released a short statement Monday night, asking for privacy.

“As may be assumed, I am in mourning for my family and for those who were also affected by this horrific tragedy over the past few days. I cannot express my great sadness for the families who are also suffering at this terrible time,” Randa Abdou said in the statement obtained by CNN affiliate KABC.

“I do ask the media please give me time to grieve and to come to grips with the overwhelming sorrow that has befallen all of us.”

Kyung Lah reported from Santa Monica; Holly Yan and Dana Ford reported from Atlanta. CNN’s Casey Wian, Jackie Castillo, Susan Candiotti and Traci Tamura also contributed to this report.

Article source: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/06/10/justice/california-college-gunman/index.html?eref=edition

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This photo, released by the Santa Monica Police department, shows the gunman entering the Santa Monica College library on June 7. The gunman’s shooting spree began in a home near the college, where two were found dead, and ended when police killed him in the college library. Santa Monica police have identified the suspect as John Zawahri.

The gunman enters the college library wearing black fatigues.

The gunman, carrying what appears to be an assault rifle (circled), enters the library.

Santa Monica police officially identified the suspect in the shootings as 23-year-old John Zawahri.

The Santa Monica police released this photo showing ammunition, magazines and guns believed to have been dropped by the gunman.

Los Angeles Police Department officers along with Los Angeles County Sheriff deputies search the campus of Santa Monica College after a reported shooting on Friday, June 7.

iReporter Daniel Kraft took this image of what he believes to be the shooter’s body as Kraft was being evacuated from the campus by a SWAT team.

A car with windows shattered by bullets sits in front of a partially burned house where two bodies where found. Authorities believe the incident may be related to the shooting on the campus of Santa Monica College.

An inspector stands outside the partially burnt house where two bodies were discovered near the Santa Monica College campus.

A Los Angeles County SWAT team sharpshooter circles the campus in a helicopter.

Los Angeles Police Department officers deploy around the campus.

Students rush to safety after shots were fired.

California Highway Patrol officers work to contain the scene.

Los Angeles County Sheriff deputies search the grounds.

Backpacks and food are left behind after students fled the campus.

Police gather during the search of the campus.

SWAT officers conduct a search at the college after the shooting.

Women leave campus after the shooting.

A police officer helps search the campus.

During the campus lock down, iReporter Aleksandr Kats photographed local law enforcement trying to secure the grounds of Santa Monica College.

iReporter Nathaniel Westveer photographed the chaotic scene right outside his office building, which is 100 feet away from the crime scene at Santa Monica College. He says during the shooting, police closed down the intersection as they combed the adjacent office complex with their guns drawn.

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Santa Monica, California (CNN) — What would compel a man to take his father’s and his brother’s lives and then spray bullets at his former college, killing three other people in the next 13 minutes?

The Friday afternoon rampage in Santa Monica, California, ended only when police shot dead the suspect, John Zawahri.

Over the weekend, bits and pieces emerged about 23-year-old.

But with his death — a day shy of his 24th birthday — the central question may remain unanswered.

He had suffered mental health issues and was hospitalized a few years ago after allegedly talking about harming someone, a law enforcement source said.

Family emotional over tragic loss

Santa Monica hero used car as blockade

5th victim dead in Santa Monica shooting

Police had contact with him in 2006 — but because he was in high school, and therefore a juvenile at the time, police couldn’t disclose more.

And as recently as 2010, he attended Santa Monica College — where he met his chaotic end in the school library.

‘I’ll never forget his eyes’

Police say the spate of violence that left this beachfront city reeling on Friday involved as many as six incidents over 13 minutes.

It started at the Zawahri family house on Yorkshire Avenue shortly before noon, and ended a mile away in the college library where students were studying for finals.

Officers were dispatched to the house to respond to reports of shots fired. There, they found the 1,000-square-foot home in flames.

Inside, firefighters would later find two bodies in a back room — that of Zawahri’s father, Samir, and his brother Chris.

Both had been shot.

Outside the house, police came across an injured woman who too had been shot: Deborah Fine.

Fine told CNN she was driving when she saw the gunman pull over another woman and hold a rifle to her head.

“I thought to myself, ‘What are you doing? Why are you pointing this gun at her?’ And so I put on my accelerator, I hit the gas, and I got in between the two of them,” she said.

The bold move quickly turned the gunman’s attention to Fine.

“I’ll never forget his eyes. They were just so intense and so cold,” she said. “That’s when he raised his rifle.”

The bullets struck Fine three to four times across her body.

With blood pooling around her, she slumped over and played dead in hopes that the gunman would stop.

When neighbors rushed to the scene, Fine had one plea:

“Please, I don’t want to die. I have twins. Just please open my car door,” she said.

Fine still has pieces of shrapnel inside her body.

The next two victims

Fine had interrupted the gunman’s carjacking. But the gunman’s rampage was just beginning.

He got into the carjacked vehicle and forced his victim to drive the short distance to Santa Monica College.

During their ride, 911 calls poured in, keeping police on the gunman’s path.

As the car headed toward the campus of the community college, where 30,000 students are registered, he opened fire on a passing bus, slightly wounding three people.

He then got out and shot into a red Ford Explorer, carrying 26-year-old Marcela Franco and her father, 68-year-old Carlos Navarro Franco. They were on campus to get textbooks for Marcela.

Carlos Franco worked as a groundskeeper at the college. He died shortly after the shooting.

“Carlos worked really hard. He worked beyond the age of retirement … so that he could support his daughters and especially Marcela,” who was about to graduate, relative Margret Quinonez Perez said.

Marcela Franco wanted to be a clinical psychologist. She was taken off life support Sunday.

“We spent last 48 hours like (in) a cocoon. Nobody else in there — just us,” Quinonez Perez said. “We were loving her, telling her how much we loved her. We’re going to miss her.”

The Santa Monica College Foundation established The Carlos Franco Family Memorial Fund to help the family. Relatives want to give the father and daughter proper burials.

“‘Broken’ is not a strong enough word to describe us,” Quinonez Perez said.

‘He executed her’

After shooting into the SUV, the gunman abandoned his hijacked vehicle — leaving the driver unhurt.

Dressed in black and wearing a ballistic vest, he then walked the campus, “shooting as he went along,” Santa Monica Police Chief Jacqueline Seabrooks said.

Outside the school library, he saw a woman and “executed her,” Seabrooks said.

Her death was the fifth of the rampage. Her name was not released.

Gunfight in the library

By all accounts, the gunman was ready to inflict maximum harm. He had about 1,300 rounds of ammunition and multiple firearms, Seabrooks said.

He went into the school library and fired several times at terrified patrons who were hiding in a safe room.

Police said it was “miraculous” that they were not wounded.

Jasmine Franco was in a classroom next to the library — waiting for her English class to start.

“You could hear rumbling, a lot of rumbling, it sounded like an earthquake or something,” she said, referring to the sounds of gunfire mixed with the footfalls of people running.

Inside the library, Priscilla Morales and her friends hid.

“I was so scared and thought literally I was going to die,” she said.

By then, the gunman had returned to the main area of the library, he was met with three police officers.

“Drop it!” Morales said she heard police say.

Then she heard gunshots and a man’s screams. Officers had shot and killed Zawahri.

The rampage was over, but the questions remain.

Kyung Lah reported from Santa Monica; Holly Yan and Jackie Castillo reported from Atlanta. CNN’s Susan Candiotti and Traci Tamura also contributed to this report.

Article source: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/06/10/justice/california-college-gunman/index.html?eref=edition

Santa Monica, California (CNN) — A 26-year-old woman who had registered to take summer classes at Santa Monica College died Sunday from wounds she sustained in a shooting Friday.

Marcela Franco was with her father, Carlos Navarro Franco, 68, in an SUV on campus when they were shot. She was going to buy textbooks at the time.

Carlos Navarro Franco died; Marcela Franco was left in critical condition at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center.

Family relative Alfred Creollo told CNN Sunday that Marcela Franco had died.

College President Chui L.Tsang also announced, in a message to the school community, that Marcela Franco died Sunday morning.

“Her family was with her by her side,” he said. “Our deepest sympathies go to the Franco family. At the appropriate time, the College will convene a campus-wide memorial.”

The school has created a fund honoring the Franco family.

The suspect has been identified as John Zawahri, sources told CNN.

This photo, released by the Santa Monica Police department, shows the gunman entering the Santa Monica College library on June 7. The gunman’s shooting spree began in a home near the college, where two were found dead, and ended when police killed him in the college library.

The gunman, carrying what appears to be an assault rifle (circled), enters the library.

The Santa Monica police released this photo showing ammunition, magazines and guns believed to have been dropped by the gunman.

Los Angeles Police Department officers along with Los Angeles County Sheriff deputies search the campus of Santa Monica College after a reported shooting on Friday, June 7.

iReporter Daniel Kraft took this image of what he believes to be the shooter’s body as Kraft was being evacuated from the campus by a SWAT team.

A car with windows shattered by bullets sits in front of a partially burned house where two bodies where found. Authorities believe the incident may be related to the shooting on the campus of Santa Monica College.

An inspector stands outside the partially burnt house where two bodies were discovered near the Santa Monica College campus.

A Los Angeles County SWAT team sharpshooter circles the campus in a helicopter.

Los Angeles Police Department officers deploy around the campus.

Students rush to safety after shots were fired.

California Highway Patrol officers work to contain the scene.

Los Angeles County Sheriff deputies search the grounds.

Backpacks and food are left behind after students fled the campus.

Police gather during the search of the campus.

SWAT officers conduct a search at the college after the shooting.

Women leave campus after the shooting.

A police officer helps search the campus.

During the campus lock down, iReporter Aleksandr Kats photographed local law enforcement trying to secure the grounds of Santa Monica College.

iReporter Nathaniel Westveer photographed the chaotic scene right outside his office building, which is 100 feet away from the crime scene at Santa Monica College. He says during the shooting, police closed down the intersection as they combed the adjacent office complex with their guns drawn.

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Shooting at Santa Monica College

Santa Monica shooter ‘ready for battle’

Santa Monica shooting timeline of events

Fire to gun rampage, one mile of terror

Shooting witness warned students on campus

Authorities say he killed his father, Samir “Sam” Zawahri, and brother, Chris Zawahri, in a Santa Monica house before carjacking a woman and firing at a public bus on Friday.

Scant details are trickling in about Zawahri, who was killed by police at Santa Monica College on Friday — the day before his 24th birthday.

The superintendent of the Santa Monica-Malibu school district said Zawahri attended a high school for students behind in academic credits in 2006.

“We are shocked and deeply saddened by the tragedy that… once again, shatters our nation’s confidence,” Superintendent Sandra Lyon said.

Police had contact with the Zawahri in 2006, but because he was a juvenile, authorities couldn’t release further information, Santa Monica Police Chief Jacqueline Seabrooks said.

A law enforcement source with knowledge of the investigation told CNN on Saturday that the gunman had suffered mental health issues. A few years ago, he was hospitalized for treatment after allegedly talking about harming someone, according to the official.

It’s not clear whether the state government or his family committed him for treatment or whether he committed himself. It’s also unclear under what circumstances he was released.

Authorities have found no link to domestic or international terrorism, the official added.

The gunman and a family member had been enrolled in Santa Monica College as recently as 2010.

Source: Santa Monica gunman previously hospitalized for mental health

Authorities believe the house was set on fire before Sam and Chris Zawahri were shot.

The following 13-minute shooting spree spanned several parts of Santa Monica.

One of the four people killed was shot outside the library of the school, college Police Chief Albert Vasquez said. That woman’s name has not been released.

The assailant dressed in black and carried an assault-style rifle. Seabrooks estimated the gunman had about 1,300 rounds of ammunition during the rampage. Because he was wearing a ballistic vest and was heavily armed, “I would say it’s premeditated,” she said.

His apparently random gunfire became the nation’s latest disturbing killing spree, ending with his death in the college library and leaving this tourist beachfront city reeling with shock.

Investigators are still trying to determine the motive in the shootings that also left five people wounded.

iReporter: There was a body on the corner

Neighbors’ stories

Jerry Cunningham stepped onto her porch when she heard the shots. She saw the gunman firing at a neighboring house that was on fire.

She then saw the gunman force a woman to stop her car at gunpoint.

Another car approached. The gunman waved it by, Cunningham said. That driver, also a woman, hesitated for just a moment, and the gunman “fired three shots directly into her and the car,” Cunningham said.

The motorist was wounded in the shoulder, she said. Authorities said that driver was hospitalized and is in stable condition.

The gunman then got into the first car and forced the woman to drive off with him, police said.

During their ride, 911 calls poured in, keeping police on the gunman’s path, Santa Monica police Sgt. Richard Lewis said.

As the car headed toward the campus of the community college, where 30,000 students are registered, he opened fire on a passing bus, slightly wounding three people, Lewis said.

He was carrying an “AR-15 style rifle,” pistols and more clips for the rifle, Lewis said.

As the car pulled onto the campus, the man fired into Franco’s red SUV, killing him and critically wounding his daughter, police said. Franco’s vehicle crashed after the shooting.

The gunman then abandoned the hijacked vehicle — leaving the driver unhurt — and fled on foot, shooting at police, Lewis said.

Inside a classroom

Jasmine Franco, 22, was in a classroom at Santa Monica College — next to the library — waiting for her English class to start at noon on Thursday. Little did she know that the gunman began his rampage at a house near to where she lives with her mother, Carmen.

Jasmine Franco’s friend had left the room to fill his water bottle and she was sitting alone when she first became aware something was wrong.

“You could hear rumbling, a lot of rumbling,” she said, describing the sounds of gunfire mixed with the stampede of people running. “It sounded like an earthquake or something,”

But her 11 classmates and the teacher appeared oblivious, and continued their banter until her friend burst back in. “His whole face was red and his veins were coming out of his neck.

“I’m entirely serious,” Franco recalled him saying. “There’s a shooter on campus.”

He told the class he had heard a gun unload. “He said it just sprayed and unloaded tons of rounds,” Franco said.

Not knowing what to do, “We just sat there.”

The teacher left the classroom to see what he could learn and, moments later, ran back inside. “He says, ‘They just unloaded a magazine.’”

With the exception of his the gunman’s father and brother,, all of the other shooting victims were apparently chosen at random.

CNN’s Stan Wilson reported from Santa Monica; Michael Martinez reported from Los Angeles; Josh Levs reported from Atlanta; Susan Candiotti, AnneClaire Stapleton, Cheri Mossburg, Sonya Hamasaki, Tom Watkins, Chelsea J. Carter and Traci Tamura also contributed to this report.

Article source: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/06/09/justice/california-college-gunman/index.html?eref=edition

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This photo, released by the Santa Monica Police department, shows the gunman entering the Santa Monica College library on June 7. The gunman’s shooting spree began in a home near the college, where two were found dead, and ended when police killed him in the college library.

The gunman, carrying what appears to be an assault rifle (circled), enters the library.

The Santa Monica police released this photo showing ammunition, magazines and guns believed to have been dropped by the gunman.

Los Angeles Police Department officers along with Los Angeles County Sheriff deputies search the campus of Santa Monica College after a reported shooting on Friday, June 7.

iReporter Daniel Kraft took this image of what he believes to be the shooter’s body as Kraft was being evacuated from the campus by a SWAT team.

A car with windows shattered by bullets sits in front of a partially burned house where two bodies where found. Authorities believe the incident may be related to the shooting on the campus of Santa Monica College.

An inspector stands outside the partially burnt house where two bodies were discovered near the Santa Monica College campus.

A Los Angeles County SWAT team sharpshooter circles the campus in a helicopter.

Los Angeles Police Department officers deploy around the campus.

Students rush to safety after shots were fired.

California Highway Patrol officers work to contain the scene.

Los Angeles County Sheriff deputies search the grounds.

Backpacks and food are left behind after students fled the campus.

Police gather during the search of the campus.

SWAT officers conduct a search at the college after the shooting.

Women leave campus after the shooting.

A police officer helps search the campus.

During the campus lock down, iReporter Aleksandr Kats photographed local law enforcement trying to secure the grounds of Santa Monica College.

iReporter Nathaniel Westveer photographed the chaotic scene right outside his office building, which is 100 feet away from the crime scene at Santa Monica College. He says during the shooting, police closed down the intersection as they combed the adjacent office complex with their guns drawn.

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Santa Monica, California (CNN) — The gunman’s rampage began at a home in this beachfront city, where two were found dead inside. Then he carjacked a woman and fired at a public bus. It all ended when police shot him dead at Santa Monica College as students studied for finals, a mile from the house.

His blood trail, however, left four people dead Friday in Santa Monica, which abuts Los Angeles and is renowned for its liberal openness.

A law enforcement source with knowledge of the investigation told CNN on Saturday that the gunman had suffered mental health issues. A couple of years ago, he was hospitalized for treatment after allegedly talking about harming someone, according to the official.

It’s not clear whether the state government or his family committed him for treatment or whether he committed himself. It’s also unclear under what circumstances he was released.

Authorities have found no link to domestic or international terror, the official added.

The gunman has been identified, but his name won’t be released until authorities reach his family members, who are believed to be outside the United States, city Police Chief Jacqueline Seabrooks said Saturday.

The gunman and a family member had been enrolled in the college as recently as 2010. The gunman, 23, would have turned 24 on Saturday, Seabrooks said.

Police had contact with the gunman in 2006, but because he was a juvenile then, authorities couldn’t release further information Saturday, Seabrooks said.

One of the four persons killed in Friday’s shooting rampage was shot outside the library of Santa Monica College, college Police Chief Albert Vasquez said.

Another victim shot dead was identified as Carlos Navarro Franco, 68, who resided in one of Los Angeles’ west neighborhoods near Santa Monica, authorities said. He was the driver of an SUV who was gunned down on the campus, police said.

Franco was with his youngest daughter, Marcela, who was going to buy textbooks for her studies at California State University, Dominguez Hills, Santa Monica College President Chui Tsang said in a statement Saturday.

The daughter, 26, was shot and is in critical condition at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center “and is not expected to survive,” said Tsang.

Alfred Creollo, a relative who lives in the same building as the family, said that Carlos Franco had worked as a groundskeeper and been with Santa Monica College for 30 years — though he wasn’t working the day of the shooting.

This isn’t the first tragedy to hit the family, Tsang notes: Carlos Franco’s son died two summers ago in a car accident.

“He was a dedicated husband, dedicated to his family, he was a good person,” Creollo said. “We lived here together for 30 years. It was just a devastating blow to hear what happened to him.”

The three other victims have not yet been identified.

The two-year college remained closed Saturday as police combed the crime scene for clues to the rampage, which began shortly before noon at an acquaintance’s house in one of Santa Monica’s breezy neighborhoods.

The gunman, shot by police, died of multiple gunshot wounds, the Santa Monica police chief said.

Investigators are still trying to determine the motive in the shootings that left five people wounded, Seabrooks told reporters Saturday. A woman is in grave condition and her prognosis is not good, Seabrooks said.

The gunman had addresses connected to the house where the rampage began and to a residence in Los Angeles’ Palms neighborhood, Seabrooks said.

The shooting spree at several locations in Santa Monica lasted 13 minutes, though the house was apparently set afire before the shooting began, police said.

Given that gunman was wearing a ballistic vest and heavily armed, “I would say it’s premeditated,” said Seabrooks, who estimated that the shooter had some 1,300 rounds of ammunition during the spree.

Dressed in black and toting an assault-style rifle, the man’s apparently random gunfire became the nation’s latest disturbing killing spree, ending with his death in the college library and leaving this tourist beachfront city reeling with shock.

A neighbor’s account

Jerry Cunningham stepped onto her porch when she heard the shots. She saw the gunman firing at a neighboring house, which was also on fire.

The neighborhood, regarded as working class, sits beside Interstate 10 — “the last affordable area in Santa Monica,” with houses under $1 million, said nearby resident Carmen Franco, 47, who’s not related to the killed victim. “Nobody can afford to buy now here in Santa Monica,” where houses are easily seven figures, she added. The area’s only trailer park is on the other side of the highway.

Investigators believe the gunman knew the dead people in the house, but police were unsure of the connection. The fire began in the front room of the 1,000-square-foot house, and the two bodies were found in a back room, Fire Chief Scott Ferguson said. No accelerant was found, he added.

Cunningham then observed the gunman force at gunpoint a woman to stop her car.

Another car approached. The gunman waved it by, Cunningham said. That driver, also a woman, hesitated for just a moment, and the gunman “fired three shots directly into her and the car,” Cunningham said.

The motorist was wounded in the shoulder, she said. That driver was hospitalized and is in stable condition, authorities said.

The gunman then got into the first car and forced the woman to drive off with him, police said.

During their ride, 911 calls poured in, keeping police on the gunman’s path, said Sgt. Richard Lewis, a spokesman for the Santa Monica police.

As the car headed toward the campus of the community college, where 30,000 students are registered, he opened fire on a passing bus, slightly wounding three people, Lewis said.

He was carrying an “AR-15 style rifle,” pistols and “more clips for the rifle,” Lewis said.

Police have described the shooter as a 25- to 30-year-old man who was dressed in black and wearing a tactical vest.

As the car pulled onto the campus, the man fired into Franco’s red SUV, killing him and critically wounding his passenger, police said. Franco’s vehicle crashed after the shooting, Lewis said.

The gunman then abandoned the hijacked vehicle — leaving the driver unhurt — and fled on foot, shooting at police, Lewis said.

On campus

College employee Joe Orcutt saw the firefight between the man and officers and took off running, but ran the wrong way and found himself facing the gunman.

“He looked over at me, and I looked at him,” Orcutt said. “He just panned his gun and trained it on me, and I just jumped behind the building and he shot at me.”

The gunman was “very calm, not running around.” He was just “looking around for targets very casually,” he said.

“He just looked like he was standing there posing for the cover of an ammo magazine or something. It was bizarre.”

Inside a classroom

Jasmine Franco, 22, was in a classroom at Santa Monica College — next to the library — waiting for her English class to start at noon on Thursday. Little did she know that the gunman began his rampage at a house near to where she and her mother, Carmen, live.

Jasmine Franco’s friend had left the room to fill his water bottle and she was sitting alone when she first became aware something was wrong. “You could hear rumbling, a lot of rumbling, it sounded like an earthquake or something,” she said, referring to the sounds of gunfire mixed with the footfalls of people running.

But her 11 classmates and the teacher appeared oblivious, and continued their banter until her friend burst back in. “His whole face was red and his veins were coming out of his neck, he was trying to calm himself,” Franco said.

“I’m entirely serious,” she said he told them. “There’s a shooter on campus.”

He told the class he had heard a gun unload. “He said it just sprayed and unloaded tons of rounds.”

Not knowing what to do, “We just sat there.”

The teacher left the classroom to see what he could learn and, moments later, ran back inside. “He says, ‘They just unloaded a magazine.’ He said there was a lot of bullets.”

At that moment, the door to the hallway locked shut — automatically — with a click, she said. Outside the classroom, she could see dozens of people fleeing on the cement. “We could see people running with their backpacks,” Franco said. “No screaming, just running. We could just hear feet and running.”

Inside the library

As the killer ran, he fatally shot a woman, then burst into the campus library, said Santa Monica Police Chief Jacqueline Seabrooks.

Another woman — who asked not to be identified — said she was in the building when she heard a gunshot. She took off.

In a hallway, she saw a dark-haired man in black combat boots who she initially thought was a police officer, but quickly realized was the shooter. The man was walking quietly and casually.

She and a colleague ran; gunshots rang out.

Priscilla Morales said that, when she and her friends looked out a library window and saw people running, they grabbed their belongings and prepared to leave, too, but didn’t get far. “As we open the door, we hear three gunshots,” she said.

So they closed the door and hid.

“I was so scared and thought literally I was going to die,” she said.

“Drop it!” she heard police say, then heard gunshots and a man’s screams.

The officers had shot the gunman, Lewis said.

Police said that, with the exception of his first two victims in the off-campus house, all of the other victims appear to have been chosen at random.

“My heart goes out to the families of the victims of these tragic shootings in Santa Monica, and I am praying for the recovery of those who were injured,” said U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-California.

At the time of the shootings, President Barack Obama was in Santa Monica for a fundraiser a 10-minute drive from the campus, CNN affiliate KCAL/KCBS reported. His schedule was not affected.

Back in the classroom

Franco’s classroom ended up waiting three hours before police arrived.

During that time, some students followed events on Twitter, but the reports of people being shot and a house burned down seemed unconnected and far-fetched. “Everything’s hearsay,” Franco said. “People tell you one thing, but you have no clue what’s happening. You just don’t know anything. The best thing to do is not worry about it. Sit down.”

People kept opening the classroom door, which infuriated Franco. “You’re not supposed to open the door,” she said. “I’m just like, ‘No, we’re not going to do that.’”

Though they could see police from classroom windows, “no one came to check on us” for more than two hours, she said.

Tan-uniformed officers with big guns finally arrived and escorted students out with their hands on their heads for security — “like inmates,” Franco said. Officers shouted “Go! Go! Go!”

But at least the class was safe.

Franco called her mother, who also drove home some classmates whose cars were inaccessible behind yellow police tape.

“I went home and fell asleep,” Franco said.

CNN’s Stan Wilson, Kyung Lah and Miguel Marquez reported from Santa Monica, Susan Candiotti from New York; and Michael Martinez wrote from Los Angeles. CNN’s Cheri Mossburg, Sonya Hamasaki, Tom Watkins, Chelsea J. Carter and Traci Tamura contributed to this report.

Article source: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/06/08/us/california-college-gunman/index.html?eref=edition

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This photo, released by the Santa Monica Police department, shows the gunman entering the Santa Monica College library on June 7. The gunman’s shooting spree began in a home near the college, where two were found dead, and ended when police killed him in the college library.

The gunman, carrying what appears to be an assault rifle (circled), enters the library.

The Santa Monica police released this photo showing ammunition, magazines and guns believed to have been dropped by the gunman.

Los Angeles Police Department officers along with Los Angeles County Sheriff deputies search the campus of Santa Monica College after a reported shooting on Friday, June 7.

iReporter Daniel Kraft took this image of what he believes to be the shooter’s body as Kraft was being evacuated from the campus by a SWAT team.

A car with windows shattered by bullets sits in front of a partially burned house where two bodies where found. Authorities believe the incident may be related to the shooting on the campus of Santa Monica College.

An inspector stands outside the partially burnt house where two bodies were discovered near the Santa Monica College campus.

A Los Angeles County SWAT team sharpshooter circles the campus in a helicopter.

Los Angeles Police Department officers deploy around the campus.

Students rush to safety after shots were fired.

California Highway Patrol officers work to contain the scene.

Los Angeles County Sheriff deputies search the grounds.

Backpacks and food are left behind after students fled the campus.

Police gather during the search of the campus.

SWAT officers conduct a search at the college after the shooting.

Women leave campus after the shooting.

A police officer helps search the campus.

During the campus lock down, iReporter Aleksandr Kats photographed local law enforcement trying to secure the grounds of Santa Monica College.

iReporter Nathaniel Westveer photographed the chaotic scene right outside his office building, which is 100 feet away from the crime scene at Santa Monica College. He says during the shooting, police closed down the intersection as they combed the adjacent office complex with their guns drawn.

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Santa Monica, California (CNN) — The gunman’s rampage began at a home in this beachfront city, where two were found dead inside. Then he carjacked a woman and fired at a public bus. It all ended when police shot him dead at Santa Monica College as students studied for finals, a mile from the house.

His blood trail, however, left four people dead Friday in Santa Monica, which abuts Los Angeles and is renowned for its liberal openness.

A law enforcement source with knowledge of the investigation told CNN on Saturday that the gunman had suffered mental health issues. A couple of years ago, he was hospitalized for treatment after allegedly talking about harming someone, according to the official.

It’s not clear whether the state government or his family committed him for treatment or whether he committed himself. It’s also unclear under what circumstances he was released.

Authorities have found no link to domestic or international terror, the official added.

The gunman has been identified, but his name won’t be released until authorities reach his family members, who are believed to be outside the United States, city Police Chief Jacqueline Seabrooks said Saturday.

The gunman and a family member had been enrolled in the college as recently as 2010. The gunman, 23, would have turned 24 on Saturday, Seabrooks said.

Police had contact with the gunman in 2006, but because he was a juvenile then, authorities couldn’t release further information Saturday, Seabrooks said.

One of the four persons killed in Friday’s shooting rampage was shot outside the library of Santa Monica College, college Police Chief Albert Vasquez said.

Another victim shot dead was identified as Carlos Navarro Franco, 68, who resided in one of Los Angeles’ west neighborhoods near Santa Monica, authorities said. He was the driver of an SUV who was gunned down on the campus, police said.

Franco was driving his daughter to the college, where she’s a student, to retrieve academic materials for her planned transfer to California State University at Dominguez Hills, said Alfred Creollo, a relative who lives in the same building as the family.

The daughter, 25, was shot and is now on life support in the hospital, Creollo said. The father was a Santa Monica College groundskeeper for 30 years but wasn’t working the day of the shooting, Creollo said.

“He was a dedicated husband, dedicated to his family, he was a good person,” Creollo said of Franco. “We lived here together for 30 years. It was just a devastating blow to hear what happened to him.”

The three other victims have not yet been identified.

The two-year college remained closed Saturday as police combed the crime scene for clues to the rampage, which began shortly before noon at an acquaintance’s house in one of Santa Monica’s breezy neighborhoods.

The gunman, shot by police, died of multiple gunshot wounds, the Santa Monica police chief said.

Investigators are still trying to determine the motive in the shootings that left five people wounded, Seabrooks told reporters Saturday. A woman is in grave condition and her prognosis is not good, Seabrooks said.

The gunman had addresses connected to the house where the rampage began and to a residence in Los Angeles’ Palms neighborhood, Seabrooks said.

The shooting spree at several locations in Santa Monica lasted 13 minutes, though the house was apparently set afire before the shooting began, police said.

Given that gunman was wearing a ballistic vest and heavily armed, “I would say it’s premeditated,” said Seabrooks.

Dressed in black and toting an assault-style rifle, the man’s apparently random gunfire became the nation’s latest disturbing killing spree, ending with his death in the college library and leaving this tourist beachfront city reeling with shock.

A neighbor’s account

Jerry Cunningham stepped onto her porch when she heard the shots. She saw the gunman firing at a neighboring house, which was also on fire.

The neighborhood, regarded as working class, sits beside Interstate 10 — “the last affordable area in Santa Monica,” with houses under $1 million, said nearby resident Carmen Franco, 47, who’s not related to the killed victim. “Nobody can afford to buy now here in Santa Monica,” where houses are easily seven figures, she added. The area’s only trailer park is on the other side of the highway.

Investigators believe the gunman knew the dead people in the house, but police were unsure of the connection. The fire began in the front room of the 1,000-square-foot house, and the two bodies were found in a back room, Fire Chief Scott Ferguson said. No accelerant was found, he added.

Cunningham then observed the gunman force at gunpoint a woman to stop her car.

Another car approached. The gunman waved it by, Cunningham said. That driver, also a woman, hesitated for just a moment, and the gunman “fired three shots directly into her and the car,” Cunningham said.

The motorist was wounded in the shoulder, she said. That driver was hospitalized and is in stable condition, authorities said.

The gunman then got into the first car and forced the woman to drive off with him, police said.

During their ride, 911 calls poured in, keeping police on the gunman’s path, said Sgt. Richard Lewis, a spokesman for the Santa Monica police.

As the car headed toward the campus of the community college, where 30,000 students are registered, he opened fire on a passing bus, slightly wounding three people, Lewis said.

He was carrying an “AR-15 style rifle,” pistols and “more clips for the rifle,” Lewis said.

Police have described the shooter as a 25- to 30-year-old man who was dressed in black and wearing a tactical vest.

As the car pulled onto the campus, the man fired into Franco’s red SUV, killing him and critically wounding his passenger, police said. Franco’s vehicle crashed after the shooting, Lewis said.

The gunman then abandoned the hijacked vehicle — leaving the driver unhurt — and fled on foot, shooting at police, Lewis said.

On campus

College employee Joe Orcutt saw the firefight between the man and officers and took off running, but ran the wrong way and found himself facing the gunman.

“He looked over at me, and I looked at him,” Orcutt said. “He just panned his gun and trained it on me, and I just jumped behind the building and he shot at me.”

The gunman was “very calm, not running around.” He was just “looking around for targets very casually,” he said.

“He just looked like he was standing there posing for the cover of an ammo magazine or something. It was bizarre.”

Inside a classroom

Jasmine Franco, 22, was in a classroom at Santa Monica College — next to the library — waiting for her English class to start at noon on Thursday. Little did she know that the gunman began his rampage at a house near to where she and her mother, Carmen, live.

Jasmine Franco’s friend had left the room to fill his water bottle and she was sitting alone when she first became aware something was wrong. “You could hear rumbling, a lot of rumbling, it sounded like an earthquake or something,” she said, referring to the sounds of gunfire mixed with the footfalls of people running.

But her 11 classmates and the teacher appeared oblivious, and continued their banter until her friend burst back in. “His whole face was red and his veins were coming out of his neck, he was trying to calm himself,” Franco said.

“I’m entirely serious,” she said he told them. “There’s a shooter on campus.”

He told the class he had heard a gun unload. “He said it just sprayed and unloaded tons of rounds.”

Not knowing what to do, “We just sat there.”

The teacher left the classroom to see what he could learn and, moments later, ran back inside. “He says, ‘They just unloaded a magazine.’ He said there was a lot of bullets.”

At that moment, the door to the hallway locked shut — automatically — with a click, she said. Outside the classroom, she could see dozens of people fleeing on the cement. “We could see people running with their backpacks,” Franco said. “No screaming, just running. We could just hear feet and running.”

Inside the library

As the killer ran, he fatally shot a woman, then burst into the campus library, said Santa Monica Police Chief Jacqueline Seabrooks.

Another woman — who asked not to be identified — said she was in the building when she heard a gunshot. She took off.

In a hallway, she saw a dark-haired man in black combat boots who she initially thought was a police officer, but quickly realized was the shooter. The man was walking quietly and casually.

She and a colleague ran; gunshots rang out.

Priscilla Morales said that, when she and her friends looked out a library window and saw people running, they grabbed their belongings and prepared to leave, too, but didn’t get far. “As we open the door, we hear three gunshots,” she said.

So they closed the door and hid.

“I was so scared and thought literally I was going to die,” she said.

“Drop it!” she heard police say, then heard gunshots and a man’s screams.

The officers had shot the gunman, Lewis said.

Police said that, with the exception of his first two victims in the off-campus house, all of the other victims appear to have been chosen at random.

“My heart goes out to the families of the victims of these tragic shootings in Santa Monica, and I am praying for the recovery of those who were injured,” said U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-California.

At the time of the shootings, President Barack Obama was in Santa Monica for a fundraiser a 10-minute drive from the campus, CNN affiliate KCAL/KCBS reported. His schedule was not affected.

Back in the classroom

Franco’s classroom ended up waiting three hours before police arrived.

During that time, some students followed events on Twitter, but the reports of people being shot and a house burned down seemed unconnected and far-fetched. “Everything’s hearsay,” Franco said. “People tell you one thing, but you have no clue what’s happening. You just don’t know anything. The best thing to do is not worry about it. Sit down.”

People kept opening the classroom door, which infuriated Franco. “You’re not supposed to open the door,” she said. “I’m just like, ‘No, we’re not going to do that.’”

Though they could see police from classroom windows, “no one came to check on us” for more than two hours, she said.

Tan-uniformed officers with big guns finally arrived and escorted students out with their hands on their heads for security — “like inmates,” Franco said. Officers shouted “Go! Go! Go!”

But at least the class was safe.

Franco called her mother, who also drove home some classmates whose cars were inaccessible behind yellow police tape.

“I went home and fell asleep,” Franco said.

CNN’s Stan Wilson, Kyung Lah and Miguel Marquez reported from Santa Monica, Susan Candiotti from New York; and Michael Martinez wrote from Los Angeles. CNN’s Cheri Mossburg, Sonya Hamasaki, Tom Watkins, Chelsea J. Carter and Traci Tamura contributed to this report.

Article source: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/06/08/us/california-college-gunman/index.html?eref=edition

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Los Angeles Police Department officers along with Los Angeles County Sheriff deputies search the campus of Santa Monica College after a reported shooting on Friday, June 7.

iReporter Daniel Kraft took this image of what he believes to be the shooter’s body as Kraft was being evacuated from the campus by a SWAT team.

A car with windows shattered by bullets sits in front of a partially burned house where two bodies where found. Authorities believe the incident may be related to the shooting on the campus of Santa Monica College.

An inspector stands outside the partially burnt house where two bodies were discovered near the Santa Monica College campus.

A Los Angeles County SWAT team sharpshooter circles the campus in a helicopter.

Los Angeles Police Department officers deploy around the campus.

Students rush to safety after shots were fired.

California Highway Patrol officers work to contain the scene.

Los Angeles County Sheriff deputies search the grounds.

Backpacks and food are left behind after students fled the campus.

Police gather during the search of the campus.

SWAT officers conduct a search at the college after the shooting.

Women leave campus after the shooting.

A police officer helps search the campus.

During the campus lock down, iReporter Aleksandr Kats photographed local law enforcement trying to secure the grounds of Santa Monica College.

iReporter Nathaniel Westveer photographed the chaotic scene right outside his office building, which is 100 feet away from the crime scene at Santa Monica College. He says during the shooting, police closed down the intersection as they combed the adjacent office complex with their guns drawn.

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Santa Monica, California (CNN) — The gunman’s rampage began at a home in this beachfront city, leaving two dead inside. Then he carjacked a woman and fired at a public bus. It all ended when police shot him dead at Santa Monica College as students studied for finals, a mile from the house.

His blood trail, however, left four people dead Friday in Santa Monica, which abuts Los Angeles and is renowned for its liberal openness.

A law enforcement source with knowledge of the investigation told CNN on Saturday that the gunman had suffered mental health issues. A couple of years ago, he was hospitalized for treatment after allegedly talking about harming someone, according to the official.

It’s not clear whether the state government or his family committed him for treatment or whether he committed himself. It’s also unclear under what circumstances he was released. The gunman has yet to be identified.

Authorities have found no link to domestic or international terror, the official added.

Also Saturday, one of four victims shot dead was identified as Carlos Navarro Franco, 68, who resided in one of Los Angeles’ west neighborhoods near Santa Monica, authorities said. He was the driver of an SUV who was gunned down on the campus, police said.

The three other victims have not yet been identified. The two-year college remained closed Saturday as police combed the crime scene for clues to the rampage, which began shortly before noon at an acquaintance’s house in one of Santa Monica’s breezy neighborhoods.

Dressed in black and toting an assault-style rifle, the man’s apparently random gunfire became the nation’s latest disturbing killing spree, ending with his death in the college library and leaving this tourist beachfront city reeling with shock.

A neighbor’s account

Jerry Cunningham stepped onto her porch when she heard the shots. She saw the gunman firing at a neighboring house, which was also on fire.

The neighborhood, regarded as working class, sits beside Interstate 10 — “the last affordable area in Santa Monica,” with houses under $1 million, said nearby resident Carmen Franco, 47, who’s not related to the killed victim. “Nobody can afford to buy now here in Santa Monica,” where houses are easily seven figures, she added. The area’s only trailer park is on the other side of the highway.

Investigators believe the gunman knew the dead people in the house, but police were unsure of the connection.

Cunningham then observed the gunman force at gunpoint a woman to stop her car.

Another car approached. The gunman waved it by, Cunningham said. That driver, also a woman, hesitated for just a moment, and the gunman “fired three shots directly into her and the car,” Cunningham said.

The motorist was wounded in the shoulder, she said. That driver was hospitalized and is in stable condition, authorities said.

The gunman then got into the first car and forced the woman to drive off with him, police said.

During their ride, 911 calls poured in, keeping police on the gunman’s path, said Sgt. Richard Lewis, a spokesman for the Santa Monica police.

As the car headed toward the campus of the community college, where 30,000 students are registered, he opened fire on a passing bus, slightly wounding three people, Lewis said.

He was carrying an “AR-15 style rifle,” pistols and “more clips for the rifle,” Lewis said.

Police have described the shooter as a 25- to 30-year-old man who was dressed in black and wearing a tactical vest.

As the car pulled onto the campus, the man fired into Franco’s red SUV, killing him and critically wounding his passenger, police said. Franco’s vehicle crashed after the shooting, Lewis said.

The gunman then abandoned the hijacked vehicle — leaving the driver unhurt — and fled on foot, shooting at police, Lewis said.

On campus

College employee Joe Orcutt saw the firefight between the man and officers and took off running, but ran the wrong way and found himself facing the gunman.

“He looked over at me, and I looked at him,” Orcutt said. “He just panned his gun and trained it on me, and I just jumped behind the building and he shot at me.”

The gunman was “very calm, not running around.” He was just “looking around for targets very casually,” he said.

“He just looked like he was standing there posing for the cover of an ammo magazine or something. It was bizarre.”

Inside a classroom

Jasmine Franco, 22, was in a classroom at Santa Monica College — next to the library — waiting for her English class to start at noon on Thursday. Little did she know that the gunman began his rampage at a house near to where she and her mother, Carmen, live.

Jasmine Franco’s friend had left the room to fill his water bottle and she was sitting alone when she first became aware something was wrong. “You could hear rumbling, a lot of rumbling, it sounded like an earthquake or something,” she said, referring to the sounds of gunfire mixed with the footfalls of people running.

But her 11 classmates and the teacher appeared oblivious, and continued their banter until her friend burst back in. “His whole face was red and his veins were coming out of his neck, he was trying to calm himself,” Franco said.

“I’m entirely serious,” she said he told them. “There’s a shooter on campus.”

He told the class he had heard a gun unload. “He said it just sprayed and unloaded tons of rounds.”

Not knowing what to do, “We just sat there.”

The teacher left the classroom to see what he could learn and, moments later, ran back inside. “He says, ‘They just unloaded a magazine.’ He said there was a lot of bullets.”

At that moment, the door to the hallway locked shut — automatically — with a click, she said. Outside the classroom, she could see dozens of people fleeing on the cement. “We could see people running with their backpacks,” Franco said. “No screaming, just running. We could just hear feet and running.”

Inside the library

As the killer ran, he fatally shot a woman, then burst into the campus library, said Santa Monica Police Chief Jacqueline Seabrooks.

Another woman — who asked not to be identified — said she was in the building when she heard a gunshot. She took off.

In a hallway, she saw a dark-haired man in black combat boots who she initially thought was a police officer, but quickly realized was the shooter. The man was walking quietly and casually.

She and a colleague ran; gunshots rang out.

Priscilla Morales said that, when she and her friends looked out a library window and saw people running, they grabbed their belongings and prepared to leave, too, but didn’t get far. “As we open the door, we hear three gunshots,” she said.

So they closed the door and hid.

“I was so scared and thought literally I was going to die,” she said.

“Drop it!” she heard police say, then heard gunshots and a man’s screams.

The officers had shot the gunman, Lewis said.

Police said that, with the exception of his first two victims in the off-campus house, all of the other victims appear to have been chosen at random.

“My heart goes out to the families of the victims of these tragic shootings in Santa Monica, and I am praying for the recovery of those who were injured,” said U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-California.

At the time of the shootings, President Barack Obama was in Santa Monica for a fundraiser a 10-minute drive from the campus, CNN affiliate KCAL/KCBS reported. His schedule was not affected.

Back in the classroom

Franco’s classroom ended up waiting three hours before police arrived.

During that time, some students followed events on Twitter, but the reports of people being shot and a house burned down seemed unconnected and far-fetched. “Everything’s hearsay,” Franco said. “People tell you one thing, but you have no clue what’s happening. You just don’t know anything. The best thing to do is not worry about it. Sit down.”

People kept opening the classroom door, which infuriated Franco. “You’re not supposed to open the door,” she said. “I’m just like, ‘No, we’re not going to do that.’”

Though they could see police from classroom windows, “no one came to check on us” for more than two hours, she said.

Tan-uniformed officers with big guns finally arrived and escorted students out with their hands on their heads for security — “like inmates,” Franco said. Officers shouted “Go! Go! Go!”

But at least the class was safe.

Franco called her mother, who also drove home some classmates whose cars were inaccessible behind yellow police tape.

“I went home and fell asleep,” Franco said.

CNN’s Miguel Marquez reported from Santa Monica, Susan Candiotti from New York; and Michael Martinez wrote from Los Angeles. CNN’s Cheri Mossburg, Sonya Hamasaki, Tom Watkins, Chelsea J. Carter and Traci Tamura contributed to this report.

Article source: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/06/08/us/california-college-gunman/index.html?eref=edition

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The bombings in Boston on Monday, April 15, 2013, serve as a cruel reminder that the U.S. has seen other terror attacks on home soil. See all photography related to the Boston bombings.

A suspect known as “The Unabomber” kept authorities at bay for years during his long, random terror spree. Here, FBI agents guard the entrance to the property of Ted Kaczynski on April 5, 1996, in Lincoln, Montana.

Justice finally catches up with Ted Kaczynski, who is escorted by U.S. marshals outside Sacramento County Federal Court in California in May 1998 after receiving life sentences for his crimes.

Firefighters and rescue crews work outside the World Trade Center after an attack on February 26, 1993. This bombing shocked the nation, which had no way to realize that much worse was to come at this location in less than decade.

A police photographer helps document the bombing of the underground parking garage at the World Trade Center, which killed six people in 1993.

The north side of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City shows the devastation caused by a fuel-and fertilizer truck bomb detonated on April 19, 1995. At the time, it was the worst terror attack on U.S. soil, killing 168 people.

Employees of the Bureau of Arms, Tobacco and Firearms hug in front of the wreckage of the Murrah Building. Americans soon learned one of their own — not foreigners bent on U.S. destruction — was responsible for the carnage.

Atlanta was the excited and elated host of the 1996 Summer Olympics when a bomb went off at Centennial Olympic Park on July 27. Two people were killed and 111 were injured by the blast. It would not be the last time that a U.S. sports venue would find itself the target of terrorism.

September 11, 2001. Americans need no reminder of the significance of this terrible date. Here, people flee the World Trade Center before its devastating collapse. See Ground Zero now.

Rising from the ashes of ruin: Rescue workers continue their search for victims as smoke still pours from the rubble of the World Trade Center on September 13, 2001. The death toll at ground zero: 2,753.

Soldiers comfort each other at the Fallen Soldier Memorial at Fort Hood, Texas, on November 10, 2009, during a ceremony honoring the 13 soldiers and civilians killed in a shooting rampage five days earlier.

In the darkness of terror attacks, Americans find the light. Here, officers hold candles during a vigil for those killed at Fort Hood.

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Editor’s note: Peter Bergen is CNN’s national security analyst, a director at the New America Foundation and the author of “Manhunt: The Ten-Year Search for bin Laden — From 9/11 to Abbottabad.” Jennifer Rowland is a program associate at the New America Foundation.

(CNN) — At a hearing on Tuesday, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the Army psychiatrist accused of killing 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009, for the first time publicly explained that he was motivated by a desire to protect the leadership of the Taliban — in particular, Mullah Mohammed Omar, the overall leader of the movement.

Prosecutors say that as Hasan opened fire on a room full of soldiers filling out paperwork for their upcoming deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq, he shouted “Allahu Akbar! (God is great!)”

Maj. Nidal Hasan can represent himself

The massacre at Fort Hood is part of a trend of “homegrown” al Qaeda-inspired terrorist attacks and plots against U.S. military targets.

For those individuals who buy in to the late Osama bin Laden’s key claim that the U.S. is at war with Islam, American soldiers who are fighting wars in Muslim countries make compelling targets. Indeed, more than a quarter of all the jihadist extremists who have carried out or plotted attacks inside the United States since the 9/11 attacks have targeted the U.S. military.

Since 9/11, 21 people have plotted to attack American soldiers or military installations, according to a count by the New America Foundation.

Before he went on his rampage at Fort Hood, Hasan had contacted the radical Yemeni-American preacher Anwar al-Awlaki over the Internet to ask whether it would be permissible for a U.S. soldier to kill his comrades in the name of Islam.

Al-Awlaki’s responses were noncommittal, and although the conversations were a red flag to some law enforcement officials who were monitoring these communications, those officials did not alert the military.

Toobin: Hasan wants suicide by judge

Former jihadist calls attack ‘cowardly’

A Pentagon report released after Hasan’s attack found that the military’s official relations with the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Forces were “inadequate,” which might have contributed to the failures to communicate about the threat some law enforcement officials suspected Hasan might pose.

Here are some other examples of plots or actions that targeted the military:

• A few months before the Fort Hood attack, another jihadist extremist killed a U.S. soldier at a military recruitment center in Little Rock, Arkansas. Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, a convert to Islam whose preconversion name was Carlos Bledsoe, had also attracted attention from federal law enforcement. Despite being questioned by the FBI about a suspicious trip he had recently taken to Yemen, Muhammad was able to obtain a semiautomatic rifle, a pistol and ammunition, as well as the ingredients for a Molotov cocktail.

• A month after Muhammad attacked the military recruitment center in Arkansas, a Muslim convert named Daniel Patrick Boyd was arrested along with six other men, accused of leading a terrorist cell that plotted to attack the Marine base at Quantico, Virginia, outside Washington. Boyd had a history of run-ins with the law, but his group still managed to amass weapons and conduct paramilitary training before they were discovered.

• A similar 2011 plan involved Walli Mujahidh, who plotted with Abu Khalid Abdul-Latif to use grenades and machine guns to attack military recruits at an office complex in south Seattle as revenge for purported atrocities by U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan.

• Four years earlier, a group of Muslims living in southern New Jersey who were virulently opposed to the Iraq War told a government informant they were plotting to kill soldiers stationed at the nearby Fort Dix army base.

In the wake of the attack there, Fort Hood tightened restrictions on who was allowed into the facility, posted more armed guards in strategic locations around the base and implemented the random searching of containers.

An extensive independent review to find the “lessons from Fort Hood” focused on identifying radicalization within the U.S. armed forces, a phenomenon that poses a particularly grave threat because of soldiers’ access to weapons and secure military facilities. The review also identified some of the procedural problems that led to the military’s failure to prevent the Fort Hood attack.

Following the review, then-Secretary of Defense Bob Gates issued a directive ordering the implementation of 47 recommendations to improve “force protection” at military bases in the U.S.

These included giving military personnel better guidance on identifying suspicious or radical behavior by their comrades, establishing better relations between the Pentagon and the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Forces and improving communication mechanisms for sharing real-time crisis information across military commands and installations.

But while establishing methods to identify extremists is a somewhat feasible goal in a regimented, closely monitored system such as the military, it is not as easy for authorities to do so in the broader community, particularly when the individuals seem to be “lone wolves” who are not part of a formal terrorist group.

Two attacks last month on soldiers living in the West fit this category.

On May 22, two men rammed a car into British soldier Lee Rigby as he was walking down a street in suburban London. They then hacked at him with a meat cleaver and left his body in the road while a bystander filmed one of the attackers. The slaying was justified as “an eye for an eye, a tooth for tooth … because Muslims are dying daily.”

The following weekend, in what might have been a copy-cat attack, a young Muslim convert who investigators believe “acted in the name of his religious ideology” stabbed a 25-year-old French soldier in a Paris suburb.

He was likely targeted because in recent years, French soldiers have served in Muslim countries such as Afghanistan and Mali.

The suspect, identified only as Alexandre D., first came to law enforcement’s attention when he was questioned briefly in 2009. French intelligence services reportedly became aware of the suspect’s increasing radicalization in February of this year.

Although there have been no successful attacks on U.S. military targets since the Fort Hood and Little Rock shootings in 2009, six of the 15 jihadist extremists who plotted to attack inside the United States in the past two years were targeting American soldiers or military installations.

The trial of Hasan serves as a reminder that American soldiers will remain squarely in the crosshairs of those few individuals in the United States who are motivated by al Qaeda’s ideology.

But in the wake of the Fort Hood massacre, the Pentagon has made a concerted effort to identify and address the government failures that allowed Hasan to carry out his attack, making another “insider” attack on a military facility in the United States significantly less likely than it was four years ago.

Follow @CNNOpinion on Twitter.

Join us at Facebook/CNNOpinion.

Article source: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/06/05/opinion/bergen-terror-target/index.html?eref=edition

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Los Angeles Police Department officers along with Los Angeles County Sheriff deputies search the campus of Santa Monica College after a reported shooting on Friday, June 7.

iReporter Daniel Kraft took this image of what he believes to be the shooter’s body as Kraft was being evacuated from the campus by a SWAT team.

A car with windows shattered by bullets sits in front of a partially burned house where two bodies where found. Authorities believe the incident may be related to the shooting on the campus of Santa Monica College.

An inspector stands outside the partially burnt house where two bodies were discovered near the Santa Monica College campus.

A Los Angeles County SWAT team sharpshooter circles the campus in a helicopter.

Los Angeles Police Department officers deploy around the campus.

Students rush to safety after shots were fired.

California Highway Patrol officers work to contain the scene.

Los Angeles County Sheriff deputies search the grounds.

Backpacks and food are left behind after students fled the campus.

Police gather during the search of the campus.

SWAT officers conduct a search at the college after the shooting.

Women leave campus after the shooting.

A police officer helps search the campus.

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Santa Monica, California (CNN) — [Update 11:55 p.m.]

(CNN) — The gunman who went on a shooting rampage in Santa Monica, California, killed four people, police spokesman St. Richard Lewis said. Authorities said earlier that six had died, but revised the number to four. The gunman was also killed, bringing the total number of deaths to five.

The shooter began his rampage at a residence near the campus of Santa Monica College, opening fire in a house, where police later found two bodies. He then shot at a passing car before carjacking another vehicle, Lewis said. He forced the driver, a woman, to drive onto the college campus. There he shot two people in a passing vehicle. One died at the scene. The gunman also fatally shot someone outside the campus library, where he engaged police in a gunfight, Lewis said. Officers fatally wounded him.

[Earlier story]

(CNN) — Six people were killed in a shooting rampage in Santa Monica, California, that ended Friday with the gunman clad in tactical gear dead in a college library and a “person of interest” in custody, authorities said.

“We are not convinced 100 percent that the suspect who was killed operated in a solo or alone capacity,” Santa Monica Police Chief Jacqueline Seabrooks told reporters.

The comments came as police and firefighters searched the sprawling campus of Santa Monica College for other possible victims or shooters. By early evening, authorities declared the campus clear.

The gunman has not been identified by authorities, Seabrooks said. She described him as a white male between the age of 25 and 35, clad in black and wearing what appeared to be a ballistic vest. He carried a semi-automatic assault rifle, she said.

Seabrooks did not identify the person in custody, nor did she explain why authorities wanted to talk with the individual.

At least three people were wounded in the shootings, which authorities believe began with a house fire and gunshots shortly before noon in a residential neighborhood near the college.

Jerry Cunningham was home when she heard the shots, and stepped out onto her porch to see what happened.

She saw the gunman firing at a neighboring house, and then she noticed it was on fire. She saw the gunman carjack a vehicle.

As he was holding the female motorist at gunpoint, the gunman waved another car by, Cunningham said. That driver, also a woman, hesitated for just a moment, and the gunman “fired three shots directly into her and the car,” Cunningham said. The motorist was wounded in the shoulder, she said.

Inside the house, firefighters found the bodies of at least two people, Seabrooks said.

Map: Shooting in Santa Monica

Investigators believe the gunman knew the dead people in the house, but police were unsure of the connection.

The others killed in the rampage were targeted randomly, Seabrooks said.

Investigators did not immediately identify the victims, saying authorities were still making next-of-kin notifications.

It was not immediately clear whether a woman who died from wounds at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center was counted among the six deaths. Another woman wounded in the shooting remains in critical condition, Dr. Marshall Morgan, chief of emergency medicine at the medical center, said Friday evening.

Within minutes of the carjacking, authorities said, the gunman targeted a bus in Santa Monica. Two passengers were injured, Suja Lowenthal, a Big Blue Bus spokeswoman, told CNN.

A short distance later, the gunman opened fire on cars, including a patrol car, adjacent to the college.

“There was an exchange of gunfire at the time, and the suspect tried to evade,” Seabrooks said.

The gunman ran on to the campus, where he again exchanged gunfire with police.

Student Joe Orcutt saw the exchange of gunfire and fled, only to come face-to-face later with the gunman near the campus parking lot.

“He was standing there. He looked over at me, and I looked at him. He just panned his gun and trained it on me, and I just jumped behind the building and he shot at me,” Orcutt said.

Orcutt said he heard bullets “whiz by my head.”

The gunman was “very calm, not running around.” He was just “looking around for targets very casually,” he said.

“He just looked like he was standing there posing for the cover an ammo magazine or something. It was bizarre.”

The gunman exchanged gunfire at least once on the campus with police, Seabrooks said.

As he fled toward the campus library, he shot a woman, she said.

A number of students were in the library building studying for finals when the gunman burst in. More than 30,000 students are enrolled in the two-year community college.

A woman — who was shaken up by the ordeal and asked not to be identified — said she was in the building when she heard a noise, realized it was a gunshot, then took off running.

Then, in a hallway, she saw a dark-haired man whom she initially mistook for a police officer but later realized was the shooter. The man — who she said was wearing black combat boots and what appeared to be a bullet-proof vest — was quiet and walking casually.

“(He had) a big shotgun,” the woman said.

She and a colleague eventually realized something wasn’t right and ran in the opposite direction. “Multiple” gunshots rang out at one point, in an exchange of gunfire the woman described as like a war zone.

Priscilla Morales, who was also studying in the library, told CNN she looked out the window and saw people running.

She and her friends grabbed their books and belongings to leave the study room. “As we open the door, we hear three gunshots,” she said.

Morales and the others closed the door and hid.

Still, she could hear the commotion: gunshots and then the gunman screaming.

Morales also said she heard police tell the gunman to “drop it.”

“I was so scared and thought literally I was going to die,” she said.

President Barack Obama was in Santa Monica for a fundraiser just a 10-minute drive from the campus, CNN affiliate KCAL/KCBS reported. Obama’s schedule was not affected by the shootings or police followup.

CNN’s Miguel Marquez reported from Santa Monica and Chelsea J. Carter and Phil Gast reported and wrote from Atlanta. CNN’s Cheri Mossburg and Traci Tamura contributed to this report.

Article source: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/06/07/us/california-college-gunman/index.html?eref=edition

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Los Angeles Police Department officers along with Los Angeles County Sheriff deputies search the campus of Santa Monica College after a reported shooting on Friday, June 7.

A car with windows shattered by bullets sits in front of a partially burned house where two bodies where found. Authorities believe the incident may be related to the shooting on the campus of Santa Monica College.

An inspector stands outside the partially burnt house where two bodies were discovered near the Santa Monica College campus.

A Los Angeles County SWAT team sharpshooter circles the campus in a helicopter.

Los Angeles Police Department officers deploy around the campus.

Students rush to safety after shots were fired.

California Highway Patrol officers work to contain the scene.

Los Angeles County Sheriff deputies search the grounds.

Backpacks and food are left behind after students fled the campus.

Police gather during the search of the campus.

SWAT officers conduct a search at the college after the shooting.

Women leave campus after the shooting.

A police officer helps search the campus.

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Santa Monica, California (CNN) — Six people were killed in a shooting rampage in Santa Monica, California, that ended Friday with the gunman clad in tactical gear dead in the library of a college and a “person of interest” in custody, authorities said.

“We are not convinced 100 percent that the suspect who was killed operated in a solo or alone capacity,” Santa Monica Police Chief Jacqueline Seabrooks told reporters.

The comments came as police and firefighters searched the sprawling campus of Santa Monica College for other possible victims or shooters.

The gunman has not been identified by authorities, Seabrooks said. She described him as a white male between the age of 25 and 35, clad in black and wearing what appeared to be a ballistic vest.

At least three people were wounded in the shootings, which authorities believe began with the sound of gunshots shortly before noon in a residential neighborhood near the college.

The gunman carjacked a woman, said Jerry Cunningham, who looked out her window after hearing shots fired.

She saw a gunman, and a neighboring house on fire.

He then waved another car by, she said. That driver, a woman, hesitated just a moment, and the gunman “fired three shots directly into her and the car,” Cunningham said. The motorist was wounded, police said.

Inside the house, firefighters found the bodies of at least two people, Seabrooks said.

Map: Shooting in Santa Monica

Of those killed during the rampage, all but two victims were believed to have been randomly targeted, she said.

It was not immediately clear whether a woman who died from wounds at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center was counted among the six deaths. Another woman remains in critical condition, said Dr. Marshall Morgan, the chief of emergency medicine at the medical center.

Within minutes of the carjacking, authorities say the gunman targeted a bus in Santa Monica. Two passengers were injured, Suja Lowenthal, a Big Blue Bus spokeswoman, told CNN.

A short distance later, the gunman opened fire on cars directly adjacent to the college.

“There was an exchange of gunfire at the time, and the suspect tried to evade,” Seabrooks said.

The gunman ran on to the campus, where he again exchanged gunfire with police. He ran away and wounded a woman before entering the library, authorities said.

An eyewitness on campus, Jason Garrett, told CNN the shooter was dressed all in black and appeared to be wearing a tactical vest and carrying a rifle.

A female witness — who was shaken up by the ordeal and asked not to be identified — said she heard a noise, realized it was a gunshot, then took off running.

Then, in a hallway, she saw a dark-haired man whom she initially mistook for a police officer but later realized was the shooter. The man — who she said was wearing black combat boots and what appeared to be a bullet-proof vest — was quiet and walking casually.

“(He had) a big shotgun,” the woman said.

She and a colleague eventually realized something wasn’t right and ran in the opposite direction. “Multiple” gunshots rang out at one point, in an exchange of gunfire the woman described as like a war zone.

Priscilla Morales, who was in the library, told CNN she heard three gunshots.

She also said she heard police tell the gunman to “drop it.”

“I was so scared and thought literally I was going to die,” she said.

President Barack Obama was in Santa Monica for a fundraiser just a 10-minute drive from the campus, CNN affiliate KCAL/KCBS reported.

CNN’s Miguel Marquez reported from Santa Monica and Chelsea J. Carter and Phil Gast reported and wrote from Atlanta. CNN’s Cheri Mossburg and Traci Tamura contributed to this report.

Article source: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/06/07/us/california-college-gunman/index.html?eref=edition

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The bombings in Boston on Monday, April 15, 2013, serve as a cruel reminder that the U.S. has seen other terror attacks on home soil. See all photography related to the Boston bombings.

A suspect known as “The Unabomber” kept authorities at bay for years during his long, random terror spree. Here, FBI agents guard the entrance to the property of Ted Kaczynski on April 5, 1996, in Lincoln, Montana.

Justice finally catches up with Ted Kaczynski, who is escorted by U.S. marshals outside Sacramento County Federal Court in California in May 1998 after receiving life sentences for his crimes.

Firefighters and rescue crews work outside the World Trade Center after an attack on February 26, 1993. This bombing shocked the nation, which had no way to realize that much worse was to come at this location in less than decade.

A police photographer helps document the bombing of the underground parking garage at the World Trade Center, which killed six people in 1993.

The north side of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City shows the devastation caused by a fuel-and fertilizer truck bomb detonated on April 19, 1995. At the time, it was the worst terror attack on U.S. soil, killing 168 people.

Employees of the Bureau of Arms, Tobacco and Firearms hug in front of the wreckage of the Murrah Building. Americans soon learned one of their own — not foreigners bent on U.S. destruction — was responsible for the carnage.

Atlanta was the excited and elated host of the 1996 Summer Olympics when a bomb went off at Centennial Olympic Park on July 27. Two people were killed and 111 were injured by the blast. It would not be the last time that a U.S. sports venue would find itself the target of terrorism.

September 11, 2001. Americans need no reminder of the significance of this terrible date. Here, people flee the World Trade Center before its devastating collapse. See Ground Zero now.

Rising from the ashes of ruin: Rescue workers continue their search for victims as smoke still pours from the rubble of the World Trade Center on September 13, 2001. The death toll at ground zero: 2,753.

Soldiers comfort each other at the Fallen Soldier Memorial at Fort Hood, Texas, on November 10, 2009, during a ceremony honoring the 13 soldiers and civilians killed in a shooting rampage five days earlier.

In the darkness of terror attacks, Americans find the light. Here, officers hold candles during a vigil for those killed at Fort Hood.

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Editor’s note: Peter Bergen is CNN’s national security analyst, a director at the New America Foundation and the author of “Manhunt: The Ten-Year Search for bin Laden — From 9/11 to Abbottabad.” Jennifer Rowland is a program associate at the New America Foundation.

(CNN) — At a hearing on Tuesday, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the Army psychiatrist accused of killing 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009, for the first time publicly explained that he was motivated by a desire to protect the leadership of the Taliban — in particular, Mullah Mohammed Omar, the overall leader of the movement.

Prosecutors say that as Hasan opened fire on a room full of soldiers filling out paperwork for their upcoming deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq, he shouted “Allahu Akbar! (God is great!)”

Maj. Nidal Hasan can represent himself

The massacre at Fort Hood is part of a trend of “homegrown” al Qaeda-inspired terrorist attacks and plots against U.S. military targets.

For those individuals who buy in to the late Osama bin Laden’s key claim that the U.S. is at war with Islam, American soldiers who are fighting wars in Muslim countries make compelling targets. Indeed, more than a quarter of all the jihadist extremists who have carried out or plotted attacks inside the United States since the 9/11 attacks have targeted the U.S. military.

Since 9/11, 21 people have plotted to attack American soldiers or military installations, according to a count by the New America Foundation.

Before he went on his rampage at Fort Hood, Hasan had contacted the radical Yemeni-American preacher Anwar al-Awlaki over the Internet to ask whether it would be permissible for a U.S. soldier to kill his comrades in the name of Islam.

Al-Awlaki’s responses were noncommittal, and although the conversations were a red flag to some law enforcement officials who were monitoring these communications, those officials did not alert the military.

Toobin: Hasan wants suicide by judge

Former jihadist calls attack ‘cowardly’

A Pentagon report released after Hasan’s attack found that the military’s official relations with the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Forces were “inadequate,” which might have contributed to the failures to communicate about the threat some law enforcement officials suspected Hasan might pose.

Here are some other examples of plots or actions that targeted the military:

• A few months before the Fort Hood attack, another jihadist extremist killed a U.S. soldier at a military recruitment center in Little Rock, Arkansas. Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, a convert to Islam whose preconversion name was Carlos Bledsoe, had also attracted attention from federal law enforcement. Despite being questioned by the FBI about a suspicious trip he had recently taken to Yemen, Muhammad was able to obtain a semiautomatic rifle, a pistol and ammunition, as well as the ingredients for a Molotov cocktail.

• A month after Muhammad attacked the military recruitment center in Arkansas, a Muslim convert named Daniel Patrick Boyd was arrested along with six other men, accused of leading a terrorist cell that plotted to attack the Marine base at Quantico, Virginia, outside Washington. Boyd had a history of run-ins with the law, but his group still managed to amass weapons and conduct paramilitary training before they were discovered.

• A similar 2011 plan involved Walli Mujahidh, who plotted with Abu Khalid Abdul-Latif to use grenades and machine guns to attack military recruits at an office complex in south Seattle as revenge for purported atrocities by U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan.

• Four years earlier, a group of Muslims living in southern New Jersey who were virulently opposed to the Iraq War told a government informant they were plotting to kill soldiers stationed at the nearby Fort Dix army base.

In the wake of the attack there, Fort Hood tightened restrictions on who was allowed into the facility, posted more armed guards in strategic locations around the base and implemented the random searching of containers.

An extensive independent review to find the “lessons from Fort Hood” focused on identifying radicalization within the U.S. armed forces, a phenomenon that poses a particularly grave threat because of soldiers’ access to weapons and secure military facilities. The review also identified some of the procedural problems that led to the military’s failure to prevent the Fort Hood attack.

Following the review, then-Secretary of Defense Bob Gates issued a directive ordering the implementation of 47 recommendations to improve “force protection” at military bases in the U.S.

These included giving military personnel better guidance on identifying suspicious or radical behavior by their comrades, establishing better relations between the Pentagon and the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Forces and improving communication mechanisms for sharing real-time crisis information across military commands and installations.

But while establishing methods to identify extremists is a somewhat feasible goal in a regimented, closely monitored system such as the military, it is not as easy for authorities to do so in the broader community, particularly when the individuals seem to be “lone wolves” who are not part of a formal terrorist group.

Two attacks last month on soldiers living in the West fit this category.

On May 22, two men rammed a car into British soldier Lee Rigby as he was walking down a street in suburban London. They then hacked at him with a meat cleaver and left his body in the road while a bystander filmed one of the attackers. The slaying was justified as “an eye for an eye, a tooth for tooth … because Muslims are dying daily.”

The following weekend, in what might have been a copy-cat attack, a young Muslim convert who investigators believe “acted in the name of his religious ideology” stabbed a 25-year-old French soldier in a Paris suburb.

He was likely targeted because in recent years, French soldiers have served in Muslim countries such as Afghanistan and Mali.

The suspect, identified only as Alexandre D., first came to law enforcement’s attention when he was questioned briefly in 2009. French intelligence services reportedly became aware of the suspect’s increasing radicalization in February of this year.

Although there have been no successful attacks on U.S. military targets since the Fort Hood and Little Rock shootings in 2009, six of the 15 jihadist extremists who plotted to attack inside the United States in the past two years were targeting American soldiers or military installations.

The trial of Hasan serves as a reminder that American soldiers will remain squarely in the crosshairs of those few individuals in the United States who are motivated by al Qaeda’s ideology.

But in the wake of the Fort Hood massacre, the Pentagon has made a concerted effort to identify and address the government failures that allowed Hasan to carry out his attack, making another “insider” attack on a military facility in the United States significantly less likely than it was four years ago.

Follow @CNNOpinion on Twitter.

Join us at Facebook/CNNOpinion.

Article source: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/06/05/opinion/bergen-terror-target/index.html?eref=edition