California gunman kills wife, self as she teaches class; student also dead

By Olga Grigoryants SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. (Reuters) - A special education teacher and one of her students were fatally shot by her estranged husband when he opened fire in her classroom before killing himself at a San Bernardino, California, elementary school, police said. A second student was wounded by the gunman, who authorities said had a criminal history that included domestic violence and weapons charges. Police said the two students, both boys, were believed to have been caught in the gunfire unintentionally as bystanders to Monday's shooting, which took place about 8 miles from where a radicalized Muslim couple killed 14 people in a December 2015 shooting rampage. City Police Chief Jarrod Burguan said the shooting at North Park Elementary School in San Bernardino, about 65 miles east of Los Angeles, was an apparent murder-suicide. It was the latest in dozens of cases of gun violence on school campuses around the United States each year. The gunman was identified as Cedric Anderson, 53, of San Bernardino and his wife was identified as Karen Elaine Smith. Burguan said the couple had been married briefly and had been separated for about a month or month and a half. The two students struck by gunfire had been standing behind Smith, the chief said. One 8-year-old boy died from his wounds. A 9-year-old classmate was admitted to pediatric surgery at a local hospital, where he was said to be in stable condition. Neither student was related to the dead couple. (This story corrects spelling of suspect's first name to Cedric, instead of Sedrick in paragraph five) (Additional reporting by Steve Gorman, Piya Sinha-Roy and Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles; Writing by Steve Gorman; Editing by Toni Reinhold and Bill Trott)