At least two heavily armed attackers have opened fire on a banquet at a centre for the disabled in California, killing 14 people and seriously wounding more than a dozen others.
Hours later, police hunting for the killers riddled a black SUV with gunfire in a shootout 3km from the late-morning carnage, and a man and woman with assault rifles, handguns and “assault-style clothing” were killed, San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan said.
A third person who was spotted running near the gunbattle was detained, but Burguan said it was unclear if that person had anything to do with the crime.
It was the nation’s deadliest mass shooting since the attack at a school in Newtown, Connecticut, three years ago that left 26 children and adults dead.
Police shed no light on the motive for the massacre, but David Bowdich, assistant director of the FBI’s Los Angeles office, said the bureau is looking at several possibilities, including workplace violence and terrorism. He did not elaborate.
The attackers invaded the Inland Regional Center and began shooting around 11am local time. They opened fire in a conference area that the San Bernardino County Department of Public Health had rented out for a banquet, said Marybeth Feild, president and CEO of the nonprofit centre.
Police spokeswoman Sergeant Vicki Cervantes said witnesses reported seeing one to three gunmen.
“They came prepared to do what they did, as if they were on a mission,” the police chief said.
This still video image from a helicopter, courtesy of KABC TV in Los Angeles, shows a victim of the shooting in San Bernardino, California on December 2, 2015. AFP PHOTO / KABC TV
Burguan said that someone had left the county employees’ event after “there was some type of dispute”, but investigators were not sure whether that had anything to do with the subsequent massacre in the Southern California city 100km from Los Angeles.
Authorities also found a potential explosive device at the social service centre.
As gunfire echoed through the large three-building complex, several people locked themselves in their offices, desperately waiting to be rescued by police.
Ten of the wounded were hospitalised in critical condition, and three were in serious condition, Fire Chief Tom Hannemann said.
FBI agents and other law enforcement authorities converged on the centre and searched room to room for the attackers, but they had apparently escaped.
One witness, Glenn Willwerth, who runs a business across the street, said he heard 10 to 15 shots and then saw an SUV with blacked-out windows pull out “very calmly, very slowly” and drive off.
Triage units were set up outside the centre, and people were wheeled away on stretchers.
Others walked quickly from a building with their hands up so that police could search them and make sure the attackers weren’t trying to slip out.
About four hours later, with police looking for a dark SUV, officers staking out a home in the nearby city of Redlands saw a vehicle matching that description leave.
They tried to pull it over, the SUV crashed, and a gun battle broke out around 3pm, authorities said. One officer suffered a minor injury.
President Barack Obama was briefed on the attack by his homeland security adviser.
He said it was too early to know the shooters’ motives but urged the country to take steps to reduce mass shootings, including stricter gun laws and stronger background checks.
“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, and there’s some steps we could take, not to eliminate every one of these mass shootings, but to improve the odds that they don’t happen as frequently,” Obama told CBS.
AP
