1 Dead, 3 Hurt In Calif. Retreat Shooting

A gunman opened fire at a Korean Christian retreat Tuesday in Riverside County, killing one and wounding three others, authorities said.

The gunman was believed to be among the injured at the Kkottongnae Retreat Camp, and investigators were unsure what prompted the attack, sheriff's spokesman Dennis Gutierrez said.

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

Gutierrez said at least two of the victims were critically injured. A nursing supervisor at the Inland Valley Regional Medical Center near the retreat said she had no information on any of the victims.

Police and emergency crews converged on the rural area off Highway 79 after receiving reports at about 7:30 p.m. that a gunman had shot his wife, said Mario Lopez, a spokesman with the California Highway Patrol. He said one person was dead when they arrived and the other three were hospitalized.

Law enforcement officers interviewed people at what appeared to be a triage center for injured victims, but Gutierrez said the language barrier was making it difficult to get all the facts.

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

He said investigators believe all the victims are over age 40.

Gutierrez did not know the age or sex of the suspected shooter, and the identity of the dead victim was being withheld until relatives are notified.

The campground, previously used as a summer camp before the religious 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.

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."

The retreat is one of four U.S. branches of the Kkottongnae Brothers and Sisters of Jesus, a 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.

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.

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