The Latest: Southern California school shooter dies

By Associated Press 16 November 2019, 12:00AM

SANTA CLARITA, Calif. (AP) — The Latest on the shooting at a Southern California high school in which two students were killed (all times local):

5 p.m.

A 16-year-old boy who shot five fellow students — killing two — before turning the gun on himself at a Southern California high school has died.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department says Nathaniel Tennosuke Berhow died at about 3:30 p.m. Friday at a hospital with his mother present.

Authorities say Berhow pulled a gun from his backpack Thursday at Saugus High School in the Los Angeles suburb of Santa Clarita, shot five students at random and then shot himself in the head. It was his 16th birthday.

The shooting, captured on security video, took 16 seconds and investigators say they still don’t have a motive.

The attack killed 15-year-old Gracie Muehlberger and 14-year-old Dominic Blackwell. Two girls remain hospitalized but are expected to be released this weekend.

___

4:15 p.m.

Authorities have identified the second student killed in a shooting by a fellow student at a Southern California high school.

The Los Angeles County coroner’s office says 14-year-old Dominic Blackwell died Thursday along with 15-year-old Gracie Muehlberger.

Authorities say they were among five students shot at random at Saugus High School in Santa Clarita by a boy who brought a gun to school on his 16th birthday.

Investigators say they have no motive yet for the 16-second attack that ended with the boy firing a final bullet into his own head. He is in critical condition.

Two teenage girls remain hospitalized but are expected to be released over the weekend. A third student was treated and released.

___

3:40 p.m.

The parents of a 15-year-old girl killed in a shooting by a fellow student at a Southern California high school say they want to find a way to memorialize their daughter.

In a statement posted Friday on a GoFundMe page, the parents said it is with “unexplainable brokenness” that they are sharing the news that their daughter, Gracie Muehlberger, died in the attack early Thursday at Saugus High School in the city of Santa Clarita.

Bryan and Cindy Muehlberger said she was “our vivacious, funny, loyal, light of our lives, Cinderella, the daughter we always dreamed to have, fiercely strong and lover of all things fashionable.”

Authorities say a 16-year-old student opened fire before shooting himself. Another student was also killed but has not been identified. Three were injured.

___

3:15 p.m.

A psychologist who has interviewed 10 school shooters says that while the stereotype may be that of loser sociopath, that is often not the case — as the boy suspected of killing two people in Southern California illustrates.

Marisa Randazzo is a former chief research psychologist at the U.S. Secret Service.

Most shooters she studied were, like the boy authorities say opened fire at Saugus High School on Thursday, academically successful and weren’t social outcasts. Friends said while this boy could be introverted, he had a girlfriend and good social network focused on teammates on the school cross country team.

Randazzo says that what pushes most shooters is some loss or disappointment, often recent, followed by the inability to cope with a feeling of being overwhelmed.

She describes school shootings as “acts of suicide as much as homicide.”

___

12:45 p.m.

Police say the 16-year-old gunman who killed two students and wounded three others at his Los Angeles-area high school planned the attack.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva said Friday police don’t know any details but believe it was planned by the way the boy used the weapon and counted his rounds. The last bullet was fired into his head. He’s in critical condition at a hospital.

The attack at Saugus High School in Santa Clarita happened around 7:30 a.m., Thursday, soon after the boy’s mother dropped him off on his 16th birthday.

Villanueva says the boy entered the school grounds, went by himself into a quad, dropped his backpack, pulled out the handgun and fired methodically but randomly.

Police said they don’t believe anyone he shot had a relationship with him beyond being fellow students.

___

12:25 p.m.

Officials have identified one of the two students were killed in a school shooting in Southern California.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva on Friday identified her as 15-year-old Gracie Anne Muehlberger.

She was shot Thursday at Saugus High School in in the city of Santa Clarita.

Authorities say a 16-year-old student opened fire. Another student was also killed and three were injured before the suspect shot himself.

He has not been identified and is in critical condition at a hospital.

Doctors say two girls who were injured are expected to recover and be released soon from a hospital. A 14-year-old boy was treated and released from another hospital.

___

12:15 p.m.

Officials say they have still not determined a motive for why a 16-year-old Southern California high school student allegedly opened fire at his school, killing two students and wounding two more before he shot himself.

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office homicide Capt. Kent Wegener told reporters Friday that investigators have interviewed 40 people so far and have six more to go.

The suspect has not been identified and is in critical condition at a hospital.

Wegener says “no motive or rationale has yet been established for the subject’s assault.”

He says authorities have not discovered anything written by the suspect that could explain a motive.

___

9:10 a.m.

Doctors who treated two girls shot in the attack at a high school outside Los Angeles say both were in remarkably good spirits when they arrived at a hospital for treatment.

Dr. Boris Borazjani of Providence Holy Cross Hospital told reporters Friday that both girls were sitting up and “smiling and talking” while undergoing treatment after Thursday’s shooting at Saugus High School in in the city of Santa Clarita that killed two students.

Dr. Evan Valle added that “both girls were very stoic.”

Borazjani called gun violence like the shooting at the school “an unacceptable public health problem.”

The 16-year-old boy suspected of opening fire is in critical condition at another hospital.

___

8:50 a.m.

Officials say the 16-year-old boy suspected of killing two students at his high school outside Los Angeles remains in critical condition.

Henry Mayo Hospital spokesman Patrick Moody gave the update about the boy’s condition on Friday, a day after the shooting at Saugus High School in in the city of Santa Clarita

Law enforcement officials have said the unidentified boy was gravely wounded. They say he shot five students seemingly at random and then shot himself in the head about 7:30 a.m. Thursday on his 16th birthday.

The boy lived with his mother in a modest home on a leafy street in Santa Clarita. It’s a Los Angeles suburb of about 210,000 people known for good schools, safe streets and relatively affordable housing.

___

8:10 a.m.

Doctors say two of the victims wounded in a Southern California high school shooting are doing well after treatment and should be released from a hospital in a day or two.

Doctors at Providence Holy Cross Hospital in Mission Hills told reporters Friday they treated a 15-year-old girl and a 14-year-old girl after Thursday’s shooting at Saugus High School in Santa Clarita.

Doctors say the 15-year-old was shot below the belly button. Her wound was cleaned and the bullet was retrieved. She’s described as recovering.

The 14-year-old was shot in the lower right abdomen. The doctors say arrived in stable condition and is expected to make a full recovery.

___

7:20 a.m.

Police say a 9-year-old boy is suspected of shooting three other students with a BB gun at a Southern California elementary school around the same time a student carried out a fatal shooting at a high school in the region.

The incident happened around 7:30 a.m. Thursday in suburban Pasadena at Washington Elementary STEM Magnet School.

Police Lt. Bill Grisafe tells Southern California News Group the victims were not seriously injured and didn’t require medical treatment.

Grisafe says a mother of one of the victims called police around 8:45 a.m. and police contacted the boy and his parents.

Grisafe says it’s undetermined if the boy will be arrested and that is no indication of any connection to the shooting at Saugus High School in Santa Clarita, 30 miles (48 kilometers) away.

___

7 a.m.

Doctors plan to provide an update on the conditions of two students who were wounded at the shooting at a Southern California high school.

A news conference has been scheduled for 8 a.m. Friday at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills, where a surgeon will discuss the treatment of two girls wounded in Thursday’s attack at Saugus High School in the Los Angeles suburb of Santa Clarita.

Authorities say the shooting was carried out by a 16-year-old student who fatally shot two other students and wounded three before critically wounding himself.

The motive is under investigation.

___

12 a.m.

Authorities say a student pulled a gun from his backpack and opened fire at a Southern California high school, killing two students and wounding three others before shooting himself in the head on his 16th birthday.

The attacker was hospitalized in critical condition, officials said, and investigators offered no immediate motive for Thursday’s shooting.

The gunfire began around 7:30 a.m. at Saugus High School in the Los Angeles suburb of Santa Clarita. Authorities estimated that the suspect took just 16 seconds to pull out the weapon, shoot five classmates and turn the gun on himself.

Sheriff’s homicide Capt. Kent Wegener said the suspect appeared to fire at whoever was in front of him and had no known connection to those he shot.

By Associated Press 16 November 2019, 12:00AM

Trending Stories

Samoa Observer

Upgrade to Premium

Subscribe to
Samoa Observer Online

Enjoy unlimited access to all our articles on any device + free trial to e-Edition. You can cancel anytime.

>