Two adults and an 8-year-old are dead after a husband opened fire on his wife inside a San Bernardino, California, elementary school Monday morning. The shooter, who had a history of domestic violence, turned the gun on himself after killing his wife, a teacher, and hitting two students standing behind her, one fatally.
The other student was hospitalized in stable condition.
The shooting, which San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan described as a murder-suicide, took place inside a classroom at North Park Elementary School.
The gunman had come to the school to visit the female adult victim, who was a teacher there, according to police. The two children who were injured were in the same classroom as the teacher, but they were not believed to have been targeted by the gunman.
The gunman was identified as 53-year-old Cedric Anderson, of Riverside, who shot his wife, Elaine Smith, also 53. She was a teacher in the special-needs classroom for students in first through fourth grades.
Authorities said the gunman had a history of weapons, domestic violence and possible drug charges.
The 8-year-old who was killed was identified as Jonathan Martinez.
San Bernardino Police Capt. Ron Maass said the shooter was checked in at the front office by school staff and that he did not display a handgun at that time.
The shooting was reported around 10:30 a.m. local time.
Local TV news stations broadcast images of children gathering on a field outside the school, waiting to board school buses to be taken to California State University’s San Bernardino campus, several miles away. San Bernardino police emphasized that the shooting suspect was believed to be dead and that there was “no further threat.”
Anxious parents waited hours to be reunited with their children.
“It’s frustrating … but also understandable,” Holly Penalber, whose 9-year-old son and 7-year-old daughter attend the school, told The Associated Press. She called Monday’s shootings “every parent’s worst nightmare.”
Grandmother Alberta Terrell cried with relief when she was told that a family friend saw her 9-year-old granddaughter getting safely onto a bus.
“I won’t be truly happy until I see her and can give her a big hug,” she told the AP.
San Bernardino, about 60 miles east of Los Angeles, was rocked by violence two years ago in a deadly terror attack. Husband-and-wife shooters stormed a government holiday party thrown at a community center, fatally shooting 14 people and injuring 21 others. Self-radicalized shooters Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik were later killed in a gunbattle with authorities.
• Andrea Noble can be reached at anoble@washingtontimes.com.
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