California Gunman’s Drive-By Attack Leaves 7 Dead and 7 Wounded

By IAN LOVETT and ADAM NAGOURNEY MAY 24, 2014



Bodies were covered after a mass shooting near the campus of the University of Santa Barbara in Isla Vista, California. CreditJohn Palminteri/KEYT-TV, via Associated Press

GOLETA, Calif. — Seven people were killed and another seven injured on Friday night in a bloody drive-by shooting on the crowded streets of a small college town near Santa Barbara, as what police described as a mentally disturbed gunman methodically opened fire in a 10-minute spasm of terror.

The shooter, whose name was not immediately released, was found dead with a bullet wound to his head after his black BMW crashed into a car. He had engaged in a round of gunfire with deputy sheriffs in Isla Vista, near the University of California, Santa Barbara. A semiautomatic handgun was recovered from the car, the police said.
“We have obtained and are analyzing written and videotaped evidence that suggests that this atrocity was a premeditated mass murder,” Bill Brown, the Santa Barbara County sheriff, said at a news conference early Saturday.

In response to a question, Sheriff Brown said investigators were reviewing a videotape posted on YouTube that he said appeared to be related to the shooting. In the video, a young man sitting behind the wheel of what appears to be a black BMW describes himself as a sexually frustrated and angry young man about to go out on a mission of retribution to avenge his virginity.
Santa Barbara

“I’ll take great pleasure in slaughtering all of you,” the young man says on the video. “You will finally see that I am in truth the superior one, that true alpha male.”

The sheriff made clear that he was not identifying the man in the video as the gunman.

The seven people killed, including the gunman, were declared dead at crime scenes scattered across the grid of streets the gunman traveled — driving slowly, according to witnesses, firing his gun as he moved.

Another seven were hospitalized, including one with life-threatening injuries, the authorities said. Sheriff Brown said there were at least nine crime scenes.

The identities of the victims were not immediately released.

Most of the fatalities appeared to have occurred in front of the IV Deli Mart on Pardall Road, a popular Friday night gathering spot where the gunman stopped and opened fire. Witnesses said that bystanders, confused at first by the pop-pop-pop of gunshots in this idyllic oceanside community, began diving to the ground or running for cover.

The police said the gunman had acted alone and repeatedly described him as a mentally disturbed person on a premeditated mission of murder.

“It’s obviously the work of a madman,” Sheriff Brown said. “There’s going to be a lot more information that’s going to come out that is going to give indications of how disturbed this individual was.”

The episode began shortly before 9:27 p.m. on Friday, when police received the first 911 calls about gunshots. Sheriff Brown said the gunman engaged deputies six minutes later in a brief shootout before speeding off, and then exchanged fire with another deputy. He said it was not clear whether the gunman had been killed by the deputies or had shot himself.

On Saturday, the area was cordoned off with yellow police tape, and bullet casings could be seen scattered across the streets.

“I was standing near the corner of one of the busiest streets in town, and I saw a car drive down the street and stop in front of a restaurant and convenience store that had a large group of people and started firing into the crowd,” Robert Johnson, a witness to the violence, told CNN. “As soon as I realized what was going on, I ran into a friend’s apartment.”

Sienna Schwartz told CNN that she started rushing away when the shots began. “He shot and I felt like air passing by my face,” she said.
The university is about 10 miles from downtown Santa Barbara; it has just over 22,000 students.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/25/us...ting.html?_r=0