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NorCal school shooter ID’d, was motivated by religious issues, authorities say

Police officers stand near a tarp next to a playground.
Police officers stand near a body covered by a tarp outside of Feather River Adventist School after a shooting in Oroville.
(Michael Weber / The Chico Enterprise-Record )
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Authorities in Butte County have identified the gunman who staged an attack Wednesday on a Christian elementary school that left two children wounded and ended with the attacker, who apparently arrived in an Uber, dead.

On Thursday afternoon, Sheriff Kory Honea identified the shooter as Glenn Litton, 56. He described Litton as a mentally ill man with a long criminal record who targeted the school due to its affiliation with the Seventh-day Adventist Church. He died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at the scene of the attack.

Authorities found a statement by Litton saying that “child executions” were imposed at the school in response to “America’s involvements in genocide and oppression of Palestinians” and attacks in Yemen.

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Honea identified the two injured kindergartners as 5-year-old Elias Wolford, who was shot once in the abdomen, and 6-year-old Roman Mendez, who sustained two gunshot wounds resulting in internal injuries. Both boys remained in critical condition on Thursday afternoon.

“They have a very long road ahead of them in terms of recovery,” said Honea. “It’s very likely that they are going to have to have a number of surgeries going forward, but the fact that they are currently still with us, I think, is a miracle.”

As investigators pieced together what happened, they told reporters at a news conference Wednesday that the incident started with an appointment at Feather River Adventist School just outside Oroville, a town of around 20,000 that’s about an hour’s drive north of Sacramento.

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Litton met with a school official after being dropped off at the school in an Uber, Honea said.

Litton said he was interested in enrolling a family member at the school, which has fewer than 40 students.

“It was a cordial meeting,” the sheriff said. “There was nothing that gave rise to concern.”

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The shooting happened after that meeting, and the first 911 call was made at 1:08 p.m., according to authorities.

A California Highway Patrol officer arrived on the campus at 1:10 p.m. and was directed by school staff to an area where the gunman had shot himself, Honea said.

Deputies arrived minutes later and found two boys in “extremely critical condition” and rendered aid, according to the sheriff.

About 35 students at the school were taken to the nearby Oroville Church of the Nazarene, where they were reunited with their parents. Crisis counselors from the Butte County Behavioral Health Department, chaplains and representatives from the Seventh-day Adventist Church were helping to address the immediate needs of students and faculty at the school, Honea said.

“I hope that people can appreciate how tough this is for the students of the school, the faculty of the school, the members of this community and all the first responders,” Honea said Wednesday. “We’re going to be coordinating with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and any other agencies that we think can help us navigate through this and get answers.”

Sid Patel, special agent in charge of the FBI Sacramento Field Office, said the FBI was working with “full force” to assist the Sheriff’s Office and investigate the incident.

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“We’ve had our evidence response team deployed, we have our victim specialists here to help with family members, we have our special agents working to assist with investigative efforts,” he said Wednesday, “and we’re doing an entire workup of the subject to get a better understanding of his motivation, ideology.”

The school was closed Thursday as law enforcement continued to investigate the scene. The Sheriff’s Office was in contact with school administrators and the Butte County Office of Education to determine a plan to reopen the school.

Steven Brownell, a pastor with the Seventh-day Adventist Church who visits the school once or twice a week, told KCRA-TV Wednesday that he was trying to support the community in the aftermath of the attack.

“My reaction was just sorrow — that the kids anywhere have to experience anything like this in their lifetime. And then not only them, but the teachers and the parents as well,” Brownell said. “To have to go through something like this is just unconscionable.”

Assemblymember James Gallagher (R-Yuba City) issued a statement saying his heart was breaking for all of those affected by the tragedy.

“We will never understand why or how someone could do a thing like this. I am grateful for the bravery of the law enforcement, fire and medical personnel who responded to this attack to stop the shooter and rescue the victims,” he said. “As a community, we’ll all be hugging our loved ones closer today as we pray for the victims and try to make sense of something so senseless.”

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