No motive, no gun in Oakland college shooting
Law enforcement officers leave Oikos University following a school shooting in Oakland, Calif., April 2, 2012. / AP
(AP) OAKLAND, Calif. - A 43-year-old former student of a small Christian university in California opened fire at the school Monday, killing at least seven people and setting off an intense, chaotic manhunt that ended with his capture at a nearby shopping center, authorities said.
Police Chief Howard Jordan said One L. Goh surrendered about an hour after the shooting at Oikos University. Jordan initially reported that authorities recovered the weapon used during the rampage, but later clarified that police only recovered enough ballistics evidence to determine that a handgun was used in the rampage.
"It's going to take us a few days to put the pieces together," Jordan said. "We do not have a motive."
Police first received a 911 call at 10:33 a.m. reporting a woman on the ground bleeding. As more calls came in from the school, the first arriving officer found a victim suffering from a life-threatening gunshot wound, he said.
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It was an "extremely chaotic scene," Jordan said.
More officers arrived and formed a perimeter around the school on the belief that the suspect was still inside, he said.
"Potential victims remained inside the building either trapped by a locked door which officers were unable to open," Jordan said. Others were unable to flee because they were injured, he said.
Jordan said there were about 35 people in or near the building when gunfire broke out. Of the seven fatalities, five died at the scene and another two at the hospital. The wounded victims are in stable condition, and at least one person has been released from the hospital.
"This unprecedented tragedy was shocking and senseless," Jordan said.
Shootings at Oikos University
Soon after the shooting, heavily armed officers swarmed the school in a large industrial park near the Oakland airport and, for at least an hour, believed the gunman could still be inside.
Art Richards said he was driving by the university on his way to pick up a friend when he spotted a woman hiding in the bushes and pulled over. When he approached her, she said, "I'm shot" and showed him her arm.
"She had a piece of her arm hanging out," Richards said, noting that she was wounded near the elbow.
As police arrived, Richards said he heard 10 gunshots coming from inside the building. The female victim told him that she saw the gunman shoot one person point-blank in the chest and one in the head.
Tashi Wangchuk, whose wife attended the school and witnessed the shooting, said he was told by police that the gunman first shot a woman at the front desk, then continued shooting randomly in classrooms.
Wangchuk said his wife, Dechen Wangzom, was in her vocational nursing class when she heard gunshots. She locked the door and turned off the lights, Wangchuk said he was told by his wife, who was still being questioned by police Monday afternoon.
The gunman "banged on the door several times and started shooting outside and left," he said. Wangchuk said no one was hurt inside his wife's classroom, but that the gunman shot out the glass in the door. He said she did not know the man.
"She's a hero," he said.
Television footage showed bloodied victims on stretchers being loaded into ambulances. Several bodies covered in sheets were laid out on a patch of grass at the school. One body could be seen being loaded into a van.
Myung Soon Ma, the school's secretary, said she could not provide any details about what happened at the private school, which serves the Korean community with courses from theology to Asian medicine.
"I feel really sad, so I cannot talk right now," she said, speaking from her home.
Those connected to the school, including the founder and several students, described the gunman as a former nursing student. The chief said Goh is a Korean national who's a former student of the university.
A call to the Korean consulate in San Francisco went unanswered Monday.
The suspect's brother was killed in a car accident last year in Virginia while on active duty in the U.S. Army, according to Stars and Stripes newspaper. The suspect attended the funeral of Sgt. Su Wan Ko in Centreville, Va. after the March 8, 2011, accident.
At Highland Hospital, Dawinder Kaur's family told the Oakland Tribune that she was being treated for a gunshot to her elbow.
The 19-year-old U.S. Army Reservist told her family that that the gunman was a student in her nursing class who had been absent for months before returning Monday. The gunman entered the classroom and ordered students to line up against the wall.
When he showed his gun, students began running and he opened fire, her family said.
"She told me that a guy went crazy and she got shot," brother Paul Singh told the newspaper. "She was running. She was crying; she was bleeding, it was wrong."
Pastor Jong Kim, who founded the school about 10 years ago, told the newspaper that he did not know if the shooter was expelled or dropped out. Kim said he heard about 30 rapid-fire gunshots in the building.
"I stayed in my office," he said.
Deborah Lee, who was in an English language class, said she heard five to six gunshots at first. "The teacher said, `Run,' and we run," she said. "I was OK, because I know God protects me. I'm not afraid of him."
The suspect was detained at a Safeway supermarket about three miles from the university, about an hour after the shooting.
A security guard at the supermarket approached the man because he was acting suspiciously, KGO-TV reported. The man told the guard that he needed to talk to police because he shot people, and the guard called authorities.
"He didn't look like he had a sign of relief on him. He didn't look like he had much of any emotion on his face," said Lisa Resler, who was buying fruit at Safeway with her 4-year-old daughter when she saw the man.
Goh also called his father soon after the shooting and told him what happened, the police chief said. The father also called authorities, Jordan said.
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Not so much.
Here's why:
1. It's not unprecedented. This kind of crap happens all the time. How many dozens of school/college shootings have we had in the last 10 years? About 50.
2. It's not shocking. Because it happens all the time, we get over the 'shock effect' very quickly. My reaction was, "Great... Another moron with a gun... "
3. It isn't senseless. It's predictible. It will happen again and again and again. People who say they can't make sense of why someone in a gun-oriented society would go off and do this have no damn clue about human nature.
4. It isn't a tragedy. It's the norm for a country where gun ownership is a right. A tragedy is when something can be done to prevent this that isn't being done. Since nothing is being done to stop this kind of thing, how can that be considered a tragedy? We get what we deserve when we don't do anything to stop it.
Repeal the Second Amendment. Make gun ownership a privilege, not a right. When any moron off the streets can go out and get a gun anywhere, anytime because we have so many of them out there, this kind of thing will continue to be a normal, average, every-day happening, soon to be relegated to the "daily tally" of death caused by a society who can't see the problem and are delusional enough to think adding more of the same problem to the situation is a solution.
Had each and every one of the students and teachers been trained and armed with a handgun, not so many people would have been killed or injured.
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Wrong. Imagine a classroom with a bunch of students shooting at each other. It could turn into a last person standing situation.
Of course, if you arm all the students and let them bring their weapons to class when one snaps and starts shooting the other student would have to discern whether the shooter was being offensive or defensive before firing. In any event, you would have created the enviroment where the deranged is allowed to bring a gun to class.
Of all the bad ideas I have read in my life Tater's is without a doubt the worst.
The NRA uses scare tactics to attempt to convince people that wherever they travel in the United States they are likely to be attacked by vicious criminals. That is an outright lie. The NRA sows seeds of fear in order to promote handgun sales.
Focusing on the weapon and the possible banning of such is a knee-jerk reaction of the uninformed. With two gallons of gasoline, a couple of common household items and a small ammount of knowlege, anyone could do more damage than this unhinged individual. Should we ban gasoline or common household items we use on a daily basis?
Or, would research be a better option?
and half of all mental defectives are gun owners.
<I>Deborah Lee, who was in an English language class, said she heard five to six gunshots at first. "The teacher said, `Run,' and we run," she said. "I was OK, because I know God protects me. I'm not afraid of him." </I>
Spot the cognitive dissonance in that quote. Hint: Why run?