Mass Shooting Reported at Center for People With Disabilities

 

Update Dec 3 6:40 a.m. PST: Investigators have spent the night scouring three main sites looking for clues: the scene of the shooting at the Inland Regional Center, the site about two miles away where the couple died in a shootout and a townhouse in nearby Redlands, The New York Times reported. They are continuing to search the sites currently and there is still no known motive at this time.

Update Dec. 3 2:20 a.m. PST: An impromptu vigil formed near the scene of the shooting, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Impromptu vigil forms near the scene of today’s horrific #SanBernardino shootings. pic.twitter.com/hZl9EuAa6H

— Tom (T.J.) Wait (@CBSLATom) December 3, 2015

Update 10:15 p.m. PST: The two deceased suspects were identified as Syed Farook, 28, and Tashfeen Malik, 27, by police chief Jarrod Burguan at a press conference Wednesday night. Farook’s brother-in-law said the two were married and had a six-month-old daughter, according to The New York Times. Burguan said Farook worked as an environmental health specialist for San Bernardino County for the last 5 years and left a work holiday event at the regional center on Wednesday “angry” before returning with Malik in tactical gear and heavily armed with explosives. Burguan also said that officials are “reasonably” confident that Farook and Malik were the only attackers.

Update 5:47 p.m. PST: In a press conference, officials confirmed that two suspects, a man and a woman, are deceased after a shootout with police. These suspects were dressed and equipped with tactical gear. A third suspect has been detained.

Update 5:25 p.m. PST: The LA Times is reporting that one of the shooters may have been at the party, left after “getting into an argument” and “returned with one or two armed companions.”

Update 4:07 p.m. PST: During an updated press conference, San Bernardino police Sgt. Vicki Cervantes told reporters, “Officers that are working this active shooter case located what appeared to be the suspects’ vehicle… Somehow during that contact, shots were exchanged.” Cervantes added that one officer was injured, but the injury is “not life threatening.”

One suspect was “hit” and another suspect remains at large, and Cervantes added that it is still an “active and fluid situation.” The New York Times reported that one of the suspects was killed and another has been wounded.

Update 3:43 p.m. PST: Shortly before 3 p.m., police began pursuing a black SUV in San Bernardino, the Los Angeles Times reported. Authorities confirmed a suspect has been shot in connection with the car chase, but it’s unclear whether the pursuit is linked to the shooting.

Update 2:04 p.m. PST: At a press conference, San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan reported up to 14 individuals are dead and 14 wounded. The shooters are still at large and may have fled in a dark-colored SUV, according to the Associated Press.

“We have no information at this point to indicate that this is terrorist related, in the traditional sense that people may be thinking,” Burguan told reporters. “Obviously, at a minimum, we have a domestic terrorist type situation that occurred here.”

Inland Regional Center staffers being evacuated told The Huffington Post the shooters hid their faces. “The shooters were wearing masks and the shooting kept going on and on,” one staffer told HuffPost.

Update: President Obama spoke to CBS News and said, “We don’t know that much yet… The one thing we do know is that we have a pattern now of mass shootings in this country that has no parallel anywhere else in the world. Obviously, our hearts go out to the victims and families.”

Update 1:44 p.m. PST: Multiple shooters opened fire at the conference center during a holiday party just after 11 a.m., sources and an eyewitness told the Los Angeles Times. Lavinia Johnson, the executive director of Inland Regional Center, told CNN she believes the county’s Department of Public Health was having a holiday party there.

Investigators are reportedly searching for a black SUV that may have fled the facility, and a law enforcement source told CNN that “three suspects are believed to be armed with AK-47-type weapons.”

SWAT teams and the bomb squad were working on clearing out multiple buildings at the facility, and the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives also responded to the scene, reported KTLA.

Earlier: On Wednesday morning up to 20 people were shot at the Inland Regional Center, a facility that works with people with developmental disabilities in San Bernardino, California, the Los Angeles Times is reporting.

Officials told the paper they were looking for one or more “active shooters,” and a source tells ABC 7 Eyewitness News that “up to 12 people were killed.”

SBFD units responding to reports of 20 victim shooting incident in 1300 block of S. Waterman. SBPD is working to clear the scene.

— San Bernardino Fire (@SBCityFire) December 2, 2015

The Inland Regional Center is a nonprofit organization that employs nearly 670 people at its facilities in San Bernardino and Riverside counties and provides services to more than 30,200 children, adults and seniors, per the facility’s Facebook page.

The organization works “on a personal, one-on-one basis with people with developmental disabilities to make their lives better as they define it.”

This story is developing and we will continue to post updates here on The Mighty.

Anyone who has family at the facility can call 800-637-6653 for more information.

More on the San Bernardino shooting: 

–Video From Inside Building at San Bernardino
– Dad Reads Texts From Daughter in Building During San Bernardino Shooting
– The Shooting at Inland Regional Center: A Parent’s Thoughts
– How to Help Your Anxious Kids When Bad Things Happen
– Politicians Tweet Responses to San Bernardino Shooting