1 Dead and Several Injured in Shooting at High School in California

The Associated Press, citing Los Angeles County authorities, said six injuries were reported, and television stations showed people being loaded into ambulances outside the school, Saugus High School.

Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital, which serves Santa Clarita Valley, said that it had received four patients after the shooting; one, a female died, and two males were in critical condition. One male was in good condition.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department urged people to avoid the area.

A suspect is in custody after officers searched through the neighborhood.

A suspect was in custody and being treated at a hospital, according to Villanueva. All the middle and high schools in the William S. Hart Union High School District, as well as neighboring elementary schools, were being locked down, the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station said.

A weapon has been recovered, said Sgt. Bob Boese, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, though he would not offer any details about the type. He said he did not know if the gunman was carrying more than one weapon.

A father of two children at the school described seeing students ‘huddled together in tears.’

Jeremy Thompson’s two sons attend Saugus High School, and he said he first learned about the shooting when his younger son, a sophomore, called him early Thursday morning.

Thompson said his older son, a senior, told him by text that he and his classmates had barricaded themselves in a classroom — likely their first-period class — and covered up the windows. Later, he and many other students were moved to a gymnasium by school staff, Thompson said.

Cellphone reception was spotty, and Thompson said he was only getting updates from his sons intermittently — terse texts that seemed to understate the gravity of the moment.

“You would expect them to be more affected, but it’s just the reality that has plagued kids for so many years at this point,” he said.

The sophomore told his father that there had been shots fired at school and that he was walking away from the building toward his mother’s house nearby.

“Kids today, they never call, so you get this call, and you automatically wonder what it’s going to be,” Thompson said in an interview from a parent reunification center nearby. He had been at the school the night before to see one of his sons performing in a theater production of “Shakespeare in Love,” where everyone had been celebrating a successful show.

“And then I come here this morning and see a bunch of them huddled together in tears,” he said of their peers.

Thompson, a former Democratic staffer, said that as the names of shooting sites around the country stack up — Parkland, Sandy Hook, Las Vegas — he had just wished Santa Clarita would not be added to the list.

“You just hope against hope that it’s not going to hit your school or your kids,” he said.

California has seen many mass shootings in recent years.

Mass shootings have been occurring across the country with increasing frequency. Here are some attacks that took place in California in recent years.

Long Beach, Oct. 30, 2019: Three men were fatally shot and at least nine other people were injured at a Halloween house party when a gunman opened fire on the gathering from an alley.

Gilroy, July 28, 2019: A man with an assault-style rifle opened fire at a festival, killing three people and wounding 13 others, and then died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound after exchanging gunfire with police officers.

Thousand Oaks, Nov. 7, 2018: A man set off smoke bombs to create confusion at the Borderline Bar, a country music venue, then shot a security guard at the entrance and opened fire into the crowd inside the bar, killing 12 people. He was found dead at the scene.

Rancho Tehama Reserve, Nov. 14, 2017: A gunman rampaged through a small community, firing at an elementary school and several other locations, killing at least four and wounding at least 10, before he was fatally shot by police.

San Diego, April 30, 2017: A man fired a gun at a poolside party while talking on a cellphone with an ex-girlfriend, killing one person and injuring at least six, before the police shot and killed him.

San Bernardino, Dec. 2, 2015: A heavily armed man and woman killed at least 14 people and wounded at least 17 at a social services center before dying in a shootout with police.

Isla Vista, Calif., May 23, 2014: After stabbing three men to death in his apartment, a college student methodically opened fire on bystanders, killing three more and wounding 13.

Santa Monica, June 7, 2013: Four people were killed and five wounded as a gunman walked through Santa Monica with an assault-style rifle, firing at people, cars, a public bus and buildings before being shot and killed by police.

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