On the morning of Tuesday, November 14, A gunman went on a rampage in Rancho Tehama Reserve in Northern California. He wounded at least ten people and killed a total of five, including his wife, who he fatally shot the night before. The shooter has been identified as 43-year-old Kevin Janson Neal.
There were at least seven separate shooting incidents that took place in Tehama County on that day, according to a report by The New York Times. It is believed that the series of attacks was initiated by the murder of his wife, according to Phil Johnston, Assistant Sheriff of Tehama County. Neal also killed a neighbor before targeting people randomly.
From there, he attempted to enter Rancho Tehama Elementary School, but the school had entered a lockdown before he arrived, according to the Tehama County Sheriff’s Office in a CNN report. Neal crashed through the school gates with a stolen vehicle, fired into the windows, and tried, but was unable to break in through the doors.
Of the wounded, six are children, according to the Los Angeles Times. One Rancho Tehama student sustained gunshot wounds but remains in stable condition; others were injured by shattered glass. Another child was shot inside a truck along the road. Only one of the six still remains hospitalized. No children were killed in any of the attacks.
“I really, truly believe that we would have had a horrific bloodbath in that school, if [they] hadn’t taken action when they did,” said Johnston in a CNN report.
Police engaged Neal near Corning, Tehama County, where he was killed. Two handguns and one semi-automatic rifle were recovered. The guns he used to carry out the attacks were ones he built himself, according to authorities.
Earlier this year, Neal was ordered to give up all his guns because of a restraining order filed against him by two female neighbors. He was charged with assault with a deadly weapon and was later released on $160,000 bail, according to Tehama County District Attorney Gregg Cohen, in a CNN report. One of the two women Neal assaulted was one of the first to be killed in the rampage.
