A school shooter on his 16th birthday took only 16 seconds to shoot five fellow Santa Clarita, CA, high school students before turning the gun on himself, the Los Angeles Times reports. A 16-year-old female and 14-year-old male died. The gunman’s condition was described as grave.
Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva said a school security camera on the quad at Saugus High School shows the boy pulling a .45 caliber handgun from his backpack and shooting the students before putting the gun to his own head. Detectives are working with federal agents to examine papers, hard drives and anything he wrote on social media or in messages to understand his motivation. Neighbors and students described the shooter, whom authorities did not identify, as a Boy Scout and quiet teen whose father was arrested in 2015 on suspicion of attempted battery on a spouse. Prosecutors declined to file those charges, however, and the father died two years later. Law enforcement officials have not shared any information about how the suspected shooter obtained the gun used in Thursday’s assault, USA Today reports. The 16-year-old couldn’t have legally bought it himself: In California, licensed dealers cannot sell a firearm to anyone under age 21. The New York Times reports that the first law enforcement officers to arrive, within moments, were three off-duty officers from the Los Angeles area had just dropped off their children at the school.