The Latest: California gunman was in divorce process
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (AP) — The Latest on a shooting rampage in Bakersfield, California (all times local):
11:10 a.m.
Authorities say a man who killed five people, including his wife, in Bakersfield, California, was in the midst of divorce proceedings.
The gunman used a five-shot .50-caliber handgun that had to be reloaded during about half-hour of violence at several locations Wednesday evening.
Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood said Thursday that gunman’s the estranged wife had recently filed for an unspecified change in orders involving child support and property.
Youngblood says it’s not known if that was the catalyst for the violence. But he says it carries the implications of domestic violence.
The sheriff says authorities are investigating how the other victims were involved.
The shooting started at a trucking company where the gunman shot a man and then his wife.
The gunman then went to a home where he shot a man and daughter.
He then carjacked a vehicle, let a woman and child get out and drove off. The gunman shot himself in the stomach when he was confronted by a deputy.
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10:50 a.m.
A friend of a man killed in a Southern California shooting rampage says he was a good family man and doesn’t know why he was targeted.
KERO-TV, citing information from family members, reported Eliseo Garcia and his daughter, 32-year-old Laura Garcia, were two of the five victims of the Wednesday evening shootings in Bakersfield.
David Bunting lives two doors from the Garcia home. Bunting said Thursday that Laura Garcia was a mother of four and her father was a self-employed truck driver who always was with his grandkids when not working.
He says most of the large family were home when the Garcias were shot and are devastated and in shock.
Police say the unidentified gunman killed his wife and two other men at a trucking business, then went to the Garcia home. The gunman killed himself as a deputy approached.
Authorities believe the motivation was a domestic dispute.
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8:20 a.m.
Domestic violence is being investigated as a motive in a rampage by a man who fatally shot five people, including his wife, before killing himself in Bakersfield, California.
Kern County sheriff’s Lt. Mark King says Thursday there are “strong indications” of a domestic violence motive in the Wednesday evening rampage. But he says that was still being verified and did not release further details.
King says positive identifications of the dead will come from the coroner’s office.
King says he expects more information to be released later in the day.
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9:40 p.m.
Authorities say a gunman killed five people, including his wife, before turning the gun on himself as a Kern County sheriff’s deputy closed in Wednesday.
There was no immediate word on what sparked the shootings that took place at a home and a business in Bakersfield, which is some 90 miles (145 kilometers) north of Los Angeles.
Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood says the man first showed up at a trucking business with his wife where he confronted another man shortly before 5:30 p.m.
Youngblood says the husband shot the person at the trucking company, then turned and shot his wife, then chased and shot another man who had shown up.
He said the gunman then went to a home where he shot two people.
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9 p.m.
Authorities say a gunman in California has killed five people, including his wife, before turning the gun on himself as a sheriff’s deputy closed in.
Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood says the shootings began shortly before 5:30 p.m. Wednesday and occurred at a business and a home in Bakersfield, about 90 miles north of Los Angeles.
There’s no immediate word on how the other victims were related.
