Our live coverage of the shooting in Santa Clarita has ended for the day. For the latest news, read more here.
There is no motive known for the shooting at Saugus High School today and it’s unclear what the connection is between the shooter and the victims other than they attended the same school, Capt. Kent Wegener of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department told reporters.
A search warrant has been served at what they believe is the suspect’s residence, Wegener said.
There is no history at that address to indicate there were any issues at the home prior to the shooting, the sheriff’s captain said.
Paul Delacourt, assistant director of the Los Angeles FBI field office, said there is no reason to believe the suspect was acting on behalf of any other group or ideology or that there were any co-conspirators.
Two separate law enforcement sources have identified the name of the 16-year-old school shooter as Nathaniel Berhow.
The suspected shooter was hospitalized with a gunshot wound. Officials said he is in grave condition.
All schools in the William S. Hart Union High School District will be closed Friday following the shooting, Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva said during a news conference today.
The shooting occurred at Saugus High School, one of the district’s campuses.
An Instagram account linked to the Saugus High School shooting suspect had the bio changed by a third party after the shooting, Capt. Kent Wegener said during a news conference today.
Wegener said the Instagram bio read “Saugus have fun at school tomorrow.”
The bio was changed after the shooting to something else but it wasn’t changed by the suspect, the captain said.
It’s unclear if a friend or a hacker changed the post, Wegener said.
The shooting at Saugus High School took 16 seconds from start to finish, Capt. Kent Wegener of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department told reporters today.
The shooter took out a handgun from his backpack and shot five people before turning the gun on himself, Wegener said during a news conference.
President Trump tweeted about today’s school shooting in California, writing that he continues to monitor “the terrible events at Saugus High School in Santa Clarita, California through our ongoing communications with Local, State, and Federal Authorities.”
“We send our deepest condolences to the families and friends of those tragically lost, and we pray for the speedy recovery of the wounded,” the President wrote.
Earlier today: Two students were killed and three others wounded when a student opened fire in the school this morning.
Earlier in the day, the White House announced that the President was monitoring the situation. In comments he made in California, Vice President Mike Pence said he spoke to Trump about the shooting and offered his condolences.
Read Trump’s tweet below:
A 16-year-old student opened fired on classmates at Saugus High School in Santa Clarita, California, this morning.
Here’s what we know about the shooting:
Vice President Mike Pence gave his condolences to the families of the students killed in a school shooting in California today, saying he spoke to President Trump about the situation earlier in the day.
Speaking to a group at NASA in Northern California, Pence called it, “another heartbreaking day for students and parents.” Pence pledged that the administration is dedicated to ending the “scourge of gun violence.”
“I spoke to President Trump not long ago and he asked me to convey his deepest sympathies to the families of the victims and the entire Santa Clarita community,” Pence said, adding that the President has “directed the full resources of the federal government to support local law enforcement efforts as the investigation goes forward.”
The Vice President also commended first responders and school officials.
“Our hearts are with the families of the victims,” he said. “Our hearts are with everyone in that community.”
“But to every American, and every one of you gathered here, we say, this President and this administration will remain resolved to bring the scourge of mass shootings to an end and we will not rest until we end this evil in our time and make our schools and our communities safe again,” he added.
CNN’s Nick Watt is live near the scene of the shooting in Santa Clarita, where two people were killed and several are wounded after a 16-year-old student opened fire at a high school before classes began Thursday morning.
Authorities are reviewing social media to “try to figure out were there warnings that were missed,” Watt reported.
Watt is taking questions live.
Watch here:
Authorities said the suspect shot five people at Saugus High School today. There was an additional person hurt in the incident, but not shot.
The victims are:
Two patients remain at Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital, two others are at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center and one patient is at Olive View-UCLA Medical Center. Of the two patients at Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital, one is in critical and one is in good condition, according to spokesperson Patrick Moody.
A second victim of the shooting at Saugus High School died moments ago, Sheriff Alex Villanueva just announced.
The victim was described as a 14-year-old boy.
The suspect remains in grave condition with a gunshot wound to the head.
A total of six victims were taken to local hospitals following the shooting at Saugus High School today, Sheriff Alex Villanueva said.
Among the victims was the suspect who was seen on video shooting five people and then shooting himself in the head, Capt. Kent Wegener of Los Angeles County said.
One of the victims, a 16-year-old girl, died this morning, Wegener said.
Wegener provided the following details about the other victims who were injured:
A 16-year-old student was killed in today’s shooting at Saugus High School in Santa Clarita, California, according to Capt. Kent Wegener of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
“Her parents are at the hospital,” Wegener said.
Two 14-year-old boys, a 14-year-old girl and 15-year-old student were also injured in the shooting, he said.
Detectives are reviewing a video showing the moment the suspect pulled a handgun from his backpack and shot five people, according to Capt. Kent Wegener of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
The suspect then shot himself in the head, Wegener said.
Authorities are working with the FBI to preserve any cell phone video that recorded the shooting, he said.
Captain Kent Wegener of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department gave more details about the shooting at Saugus High School at a press conference today.
He said that the suspect’s girlfriend and mother are currently talking to police.
The suspect is currently at the hospital in grave condition.
It was the shooting suspect’s birthday today, according to Capt. Kent Wegener of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
The suspect turned 16 today, according to Wegener, and is in grave condition.
Watch here:
Speaking at a news conference, Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva said that six victims were taken to local hospitals following the shooting.
Former President Bill Clinton told CNN’s Jake Tapper today that gun laws in the US need updating following the shooting at Saugus High School that left one person dead.
“It’s a terrible, inappropriate, event,” Clinton said regarding the shooting in California. “I mean we haven’t really passed any meaningful gun safety regulation in 25 years. That was a long time ago when I was there, but we know that the background check law, let’s just take that. We don’t know the facts of this case yet.”
Clinton discussed the Brady Bill passed in Nov. 1993. The legislation required mandatory background checks for most gun purchases and the 1994 ban on semi-automatic assault weapons.
During Clinton’s presidency, 12 students and one teacher were killed during the Columbine High School massacre on April 20, 1999. Following that mass shooting, Clinton pushed for legislation centered on closing the so-called “gun show loophole.”
That passed the Republican-controlled Senate by a single vote, but with support from just six GOP senators. The effort died in the House when just 15% of Republicans, who by then held the majority in that chamber as well, supported the decisive amendment.
Clinton shared some words of comfort for the students and families and how schools should “do everything they possibly can to minimize this.”
“[Y]ou deserve an environment which minimizes your risks. We can minimize your risk without doing anything to the right that having arms for hunting, sport shooting or self-protection. Nothing, zero, nada. It doesn’t affect that at all to have a good, comprehensive background check law and from my point of view it does nothing to man military-style assault weapons and ammunition clips over a certain size,” Clinton said. “So we just need to calm down and take this out of politics, and give more of our kids a better future. I mean, it’s just — it doesn’t make any sense.”
Watch here:
Th FBI has offered assistance in the school shooting in California, according to an FBI spokesperson.
The agency is waiting to hear back from local law enforcement, the spokesperson said.
Several 2020 Democratic presidential candidates took to Twitter to address the shooting at Saugus High School in Santa Clarita, California.
Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren tweeted, “I’m heartsick for the victims of this horrifying shooting and their families. We shouldn’t have to live like this. Students shouldn’t live in fear when they go to school. We must act now to end gun violence.”
South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg said “It is time to hold the NRA and our leaders in Washington accountable.”
Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro tweeted that his “heart goes out out to the Santa Clarita community,” and added that “we cannot accept this as normal. We must act on behalf of our children.”
Businessman Andrew Yang linked the shooting to his own experience as a parent. He tweeted that he “can only imagine the pain, anguish, and heartbreak of the families.”
Marianne Williamson called for “blessings for the victims of this horror, for forgiveness for our country that we’ve allowed such things to fester.”
Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet tweeted, “This isn’t the America I grew up in, but it’s reality for my three daughters & kids nationwide.”
Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar called the shooting “another sad example of a school shooting & why students across the country live in fear of gun violence.”
California Sen. Kamala Harris tweeted that she was “heartbroken” and said, “Our children and communities are being terrorized. We can’t accept this.”
New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker took to Twitter to say, “We demand gun safety.”
This post has been updated with Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s entire tweet about today’s shooting.
Former Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students took to Twitter to share reactions and their own similar experience with today’s shooting at a high school in Santa Clarita.
“Dear Parents, please go home today and hug your children and tell them you love them. When you do this, imagine that this is the last time you will ever see them alive again. Then demand @senatemajldr opens the Senate so that we can give your children a chance to live,” parent Fred Guttenberg tweeted. Guttenberg’s daughter, Jaime, was one of the 17 killed in Parkland on February 14, 2018.
The following tweet is from Lauren Hogg, co-founder of March For Our Lives and sibling to activist David Hogg:
Parents described the moments they learned about the shooting at Saugus High School.
Parent Ryan Moreno said he was at work when he got a call from his wife about the shooting.
“I assumed she was at Saugus and told her to give me a call back. She gave me a call 10 seconds later saying that she can’t find my daughter. So I jammed up here. Soon as I got here my wife called me and said she’d found my daughter. Soon as I saw my daughter, I ran up and gave her a hug.”
He continued: “You see this on TV, what goes on in other states and you’re always thinking it’s tragedy, it’s sad but it’s never going to happen here. When it happens here, it hits home. You understand and realize what it’s like for all the parents who go through it. It’s not fun, it’s scary, especially if you can’t get a hold of your kid.”
Brian Skiba said he has two children who are students at Saugus High School, where a fatal shooting took place today.
Skiba, who lives in Pacific Crest, California, said his children were in the school’s quad when they heard shooting. He said his child described the scene as “chaos, everybody just running mad.”
“When I got to the Albertsons, there were tons of kids there who had ran all the way from the school,” Skiba said.
The William S. Hart Union High School District — the school district for Saugus High School — just tweeted that law enforcement has notified them that the suspect is in custody and there are no other suspects.
L.A. County Sheriff’s Department Undersheriff Tim Murakami just tweeted that they are investigating reports of threats posted on social media.
“If you ever learn of posted threats please notify us ASAP,” he tweeted.
Th William S. Hart Union High School District released an updated statement that confirmed that the shooting at Saugus High School occurred before the start of classes.
The district said several students have been transported to local hospitals.
“First and foremost — our hearts go out to the families of those affected by this terrible incident,” said Mike Kuhlman, the district’s deputy superintendent. “Words are insufficient in times such as these.”
“We are currently in the process of formulating a plan to care for our school and our community — and will continue sharing updates as we learn more — including the plan for the days ahead,” he added.
School officials have lifted a lockdown on all schools in the area.
“Law enforcement has notified us that the suspect is in custody and a weapon has been seized. We have been told that there is no other suspect. The lockdown has therefore now been lifted from all schools,” said Mike Kuhlman, superintendent of the William S. Hart Union High School District.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a statement today regarding the shooting at Saugus High School in Santa Clarita.
He said that he is “closely monitoring” the incident and extended his thoughts to those affected.
Read the statement below:
“I am closely monitoring the incident at Saugus High School in Santa Clarita this morning, and my Administration is working in close coordination with local law enforcement. Jennifer and I extend our thoughts to the parents, families and friends of the students and faculty, and the Santa Clarita community.”
Mercedes, the mother of a 16-year-old student at Saugus High School, said she dropped her son off at school at 7:25 a.m. local time, just five minutes before the shooting would have happened.
He called her as the shooting happened to tell her that he had a meeting with his coach and they went into a room and locked the door.
Then her son called her “frantic, crying, scared.” She said that her son and his teammates were locked in a classroom with their coach.
“It was so scary. Because you don’t know how to feel, you don’t know what to think, you grow super numb inside. […] You’re just in complete shock,” she said.
Mom receives phone call from son:
At least one person has died in today’s shooting at Saugus High School.
The female patient died at Henry Mayo Newhall hospital, according to hospital spokesperson Patrick Moody.
Moody said two male patients remain in critical condition, and one male patient remains in good condition at the hospital.
Moody said the hospital received four patients from today’s incident.
Two students from Saugus High School were also transported to Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills, California.
Deputies recovered a weapon during their response to the shooting at Saugus High School, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Sgt. Bob Boese told CNN’s Anderson Cooper.
Boese said that it’s unclear if it was the only weapon.
The L.A. County Sheriff’s Department just tweeted that they will be holding a news conference shortly. We’ll be watching and updating our story here.
