Three people, including the gunman, died Monday in a school shooting at North Park Elementary School in San Bernardino, California, the Washington Post reports.
In what San Bernardino police have said was a murder-suicide, 53-year-old teacher Karen Elaine Smith and 8-year-old student Jonathan Martinez were killed when Smith’s estranged husband, 53-year-old Cedric Anderson, entered the special education classroom with a gun. Anderston reportedly died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound after shooting Smith and Martinez. Two other students, whose names have not yet been released, were wounded, but are in stable condition at a local hospital, according the the Post.
In a news conference on Monday, San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan said that authorities did not believe the children were the targets of the attack.
“I am told that both the students were behind the teacher when the suspect shot his wife,” Burguan said. “We have no reason to believe that the students were targeted, not that it makes it any better.”
Two adults killed, two children hurt in murder-suicide at San Bernardino elementary school https://t.co/pAnWxgy4p5 pic.twitter.com/47MKUZbI0Q
— CNN (@CNN) April 10, 2017
While authorities are reportedly still unsure about the relationship between the suspect and victim, they confirmed that the wounded students were not related to either of them. Following the attack, all students were transported to the nearby Cajon High School and North Park Elementary will be closed through the next two days.
The city is still recovering from the 2015 terrorist attack in which married couple Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik opened fire on a Christmas party for county public health workers, killing 14 people. While a spokeswoman for the school district said that schools had tightened security especially following 2015, requiring all visitors to sign in and receive a pass, authorities have said that the suspect’s gun was likely not visible when he entered the school building.
School district Superindendent Dale Marsden said during a news conference, “It’s going to take time for our heads, our hearts, to heal. When you’re going through this type of horrible event, we need each other to walk hand in hand to heal, to continue to press forward, to not allow what is tragic to halt our lives.”