Teacher and Student Killed by Teacher's Husband in Murder-Suicide at Elementary School: Cops
A female teacher and an 8-year-old student were fatally shot and another student was injured in an apparent murder-suicide Monday morning at a California elementary school, according to police.
The gunman — who was the teacher’s “estranged” husband — shot and killed himself, police said.
The shooting was first reported at 10:27 a.m. local time at North Park Elementary School in San Bernardino, California. Police later identified the shooter as 53-year-old Cedric Anderson. His wife was identified as Karen Elaine Smith, also 53.
Police said the shooting occurred in a multi-grade special education classroom with students from first to fourth grade. There were two adult aids and 15 students present, according to police.
The slain student was named as Jonathan Martinez, police said Monday afternoon. The second student, a 9-year-old boy, was hospitalized locally and was in stable condition.
Police said the two students who were shot were not targeted and were hit because they were behind Smith.
“[The shooter] entered the classroom — and without saying anything, and armed with a large-caliber revolver, he shot his wife,” San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan said at a Monday afternoon news conference.
“He came in and very, very quickly upon entering the classroom started shooting,” Burguan said. “I am told he reloaded.”
What precipitated the shooting was not immediately clear, though police said Anderson has a history of domestic violence and weapons charges.
Burguan said Anderson and Smith had only been married for “a few months” and had been separated for several weeks.
Anderson was armed with a .357-caliber revolver, police said.
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There was is “no indication the gun was visible” before the shooting, San Bernardino police Capt. Ron Maass told reporters earlier Monday.
“It wasn’t until [the shooter] came into the classroom that he presented the weapon,” Maass said.
The school is not equipped with metal detectors, San Bernardino City Unified School District spokeswoman Maria Garcia tells PEOPLE.
“When he [the shooter] entered the school, he entered the school from the front office and no one felt uncomfortably or said he shouldn’t be allowed in,” she says. “He followed the procedures.”
Chief Burguan said that Anderson “simply said he was there to drop something off with his wife.”
Law enforcement was on the scene within four minutes of the shooting, police Lt. Mike Madden said at at an earlier news conference on Monday.
He said the shooter was already down when officers arrived.
“We had a massive response to this tragic incident, but it still doesn’t negate the fact that tragedy has again befallen our city,” Madden said, referring to a December 2015 mass shooting about 10 miles from North Park.
Maria Garcia, the district spokeswoman, says North Park will reopen on Thursday — likely at an alternate location. She says the school has about 530 students.
Dr. Dale Marsden, the district superintendent, told reporters Monday that the shooting was “an absolutely tragic event.”
San Bernardino Mayor R. Carey Davis echoed Marsden’s comments at the news conference, saying: “Our hearts are broken any time any of us have to be engaged in this.”
