A 16-year-old California high school student who opened fire on classmates and then shot himself has died of his injuries, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said.
Sgt Jennifer Roth said that Nathaniel Berhow was pronounced dead just after 3:30 p.m, KTLA reported.
In the campus quad, Berhow, a junior at Saugus High School in Santa Clarita, took a .45 caliber semi-automatic handgun from his backpack as classes were starting. He fired five times, striking five fellow students, and then shot himself in the head. He turned 16 on Thursday.
Also on Friday, the coroner’s office identified the two students shot and killed Thursday morning. Gracie Anne Muehlberger, 15, and Dominic Blackwell, 14, were pronounced dead at Henry Mayo Hospital.
The other three students who were wounded were transported to hospitals. A 14-year-old boy was treated and released on Thursday, and two girls, 14 and 15, were in good to fair condition on Friday.
As CrimeOnline previously reported, Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villaneuva said early Friday that the attack was likely planned but the victims appeared to be random. Investigators were still searching for a motive.
“We did not find any manifesto, any diary that spelled it out, any suicide note, or any writings that will clearly identify his motives behind this assault,” Capt. Kent Wegener said at the press conference Friday afternoon, according to the New York Times.
Sources who knew Berhow described him to the Los Angeles Times as a hardworking student and a Boy Scout who was quiet and got along well with others, but he may have been suffering from trauma from his father’s death in December 2017.
Villaneuva said that Berhow’s gun jammed after he fired the first round, but he cleared it and fired at four more students, then himself. The gun was empty when investigators found it.
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