Thread: Gunfire Erupts at California Korean Religious Retreat

Gunfire erupts at California religious retreat

(CNN) -- One person was killed and three others were wounded during a shooting at a religious retreat Tuesday at a remote campground in southern California.

The shooting near the city of Temecula was reported about 7:23 p.m. (10:23 p.m. ET), said Sgt. Dennis Gutierrez, public information officer for the Riverside County Sheriff's Department.

Gutierrez did not offer many details about the shooting, saying officers had problems getting information because of a language barrier.

The retreat was for a Korean group, Gutierrez said. Police thought the shooter was one of the people injured, he added. Those wounded were in critical condition.

"Everybody was shot," Gutierrez said. "This apparently was a religious retreat. There are some ladies here who appear to be nuns who are very distraught about what just occurred here."

Unraveling the crime would take time, according to a sheriff's spokeswoman.

"The victims were in different locations, so it is a fairly big crime scene," Deputy Herlinda Valenzuela said.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/04/08/cal ... index.html

Four Shot at Korean Christian Retreat Center in California

Wednesday, April 08, 2009
By Gillian Flaccus, Associated Press

Temecula, Calif. (AP) - A gunman opened fire at a remote Korean Christian retreat center Tuesday night, leaving one person dead and at least three people injured, authorities said.

Authorities were first called to the rural area about 7 p.m. after receiving reports about a man shooting his wife, California Highway Patrol spokesman Mario Lopez said.

But investigators were still trying to learn the circumstances of the shootings, and were hindered by a language barrier in trying to sort out the facts, Riverside County Sheriff's spokesman Dennis Gutierrez said.

"We have some nuns that are very distraught," he said.

The name and age of the suspected shooter was not released and the identity of the dead victim was being withheld until relatives were notified.

At least two of the victims were critically injured. The gunman was also believed to be among the wounded at the Kkottongnae Retreat Camp, located in Temecula about 85 miles southeast of Los Angeles.

A nursing supervisor at the Inland Valley Regional Medical Center near the retreat said she had no information on any of the victims.

Officers began interviewing people at what appeared to be a triage center for injured victims, Gutierrez said, but most of them spoke Korean.

"That language barrier, that's the key to figuring out what happened," Gutierrez said.

The retreat is one of four U.S. branches of the Kkottongnae Brothers and Sisters of Jesus, a Roman Catholic organization dedicated to serving the poor and homeless. It was founded in the city of Cheongju, South Korea, by Father Oh Woong Jin in 1976.

The campground, previously used as a summer camp before the group bought it, was marked by a single white sign in English and Korean on the side of a rural winding road in remote southeast Riverside County. The retreat was a mile up a narrow road into the hills.

Kkottongnae means "flower village," according to the organization's Web site.

A woman who answered the phone at the group's Lynwood branch on Tuesday night said she did not speak English well and declined to discuss the shooting.

Deputies had evacuated the campground and blocked off access. Nothing could be seen from the main road.

Several women from the retreat sat wrapped in blankets outside the law enforcement lines.

"This is the last place this is supposed to happen," Gutierrez said. "A lot of people are shaken up."

Chang Kim of Los Angeles stood at the scene, saying his 88-year-old mother lives up the road that was blocked off. Kim said he was concerned because he could not reach her.

"My mother lives up there," he said. "I can't go there. I can't get in. I'm stuck."
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Associated Press writer Raquel Maria Dillon in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

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