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Oakland Fire officials work outside of Oikos University after a school shooting in Oakland, California, Monday. (AP-Yonhap News) |
Police Chief Howard Jordan said One L. Goh surrendered about an hour after the shooting at Oikos University, which serves the Korean community. Jordan initially reported that authorities recovered the weapon used during the rampage, but later clarified that police only recovered enough ballistics evidence to determine that a handgun was used.
“It’s going to take us a few days to put the pieces together,” Jordan said. “We do not have a motive.”
People connected to the school, including the founder and several students, described the gunman as a former nursing student at the university. Jordan said Goh is a South Korean national.
A call to the Korean consulate in San Francisco went unanswered Monday.
Police first received an emergency call at 10:33 a.m. Monday reporting a woman on the ground bleeding. As more calls came in from the school, the first arriving officer found a victim suffering from a life-threatening gunshot wound, he said.
It was an “extremely chaotic scene,” Jordan said.
More officers arrived and formed a perimeter around the school on the belief that the suspect was still inside, he said.
Jordan said potential victims remained inside the building trapped by a locked door which officers were unable to open. Others were unable to flee because they were injured, he said.
Jordan said there were about 35 people in or near the building when gunfire broke out. Of the seven fatalities, five died at the scene and another two at the hospital. The wounded victims were in stable condition, and at least one person was released from the hospital.
“This unprecedented tragedy was shocking and senseless,” Jordan said.
Soon after the shooting, heavily armed officers swarmed the school in a large industrial park near the Oakland airport and, for at least an hour, believed the gunman could still be inside.
Oakland Fire officials work outside of Oikos University after a school shooting in Oakland, California, Monday. (AP-Yonhap News)
Art Richards said he was driving by the university on his way to pick up a friend when he spotted a woman hiding in the bushes and pulled over. When he approached her, she said, “I’m shot” and showed him her arm.
“She had a piece of her arm hanging out,” Richards said, noting that she was wounded near the elbow.
As police arrived, Richards said he heard 10 gunshots coming from inside the building. The female victim told him that she saw the gunman shoot one person point-blank in the chest and one in the head.
Tashi Wangchuk, whose wife attended the school and witnessed the shooting, said he was told by police that the gunman first shot a woman at the front desk, then continued shooting randomly in classrooms.
Wangchuk said his wife, Dechen Wangzom, was in her vocational nursing class when she heard gunshots. She locked the door and turned off the lights, Wangchuk said he was told by his wife, who was still being questioned by police Monday afternoon.
The gunman “banged on the door several times and started shooting outside and left,” he said. Wangchuk said no one was hurt inside his wife’s classroom, but that the gunman shot out the glass in the door. He said she did not know the man.
“She’s a hero,” he said.
Television footage showed bloodied victims on stretchers being loaded into ambulances. Several bodies covered in sheets were laid out on a patch of grass at the school. One body could be seen being loaded into a van.
Myung Soon Ma, the school’s secretary, said she could not provide any details about what happened at the private school, which offers courses from theology to Asian medicine.
“I feel really sad, so I cannot talk right now,” she said, speaking from her home.
At Highland Hospital, Dawinder Kaur’s family told the Oakland Tribune that she was being treated for a gunshot to her elbow.
The 19-year-old U.S. Army Reservist told her family that that the gunman was a student in her nursing class who had been absent for months before returning Monday. The gunman entered the classroom and ordered students to line up against the wall.
When he showed his gun, students began running and he opened fire, her family said.
“She told me that a guy went crazy and she got shot,” brother Paul Singh told the newspaper. “She was running. She was crying; she was bleeding, it was wrong.”
Pastor Jong Kim, who founded the school about 10 years ago, told the newspaper that he did not know if the shooter was expelled or dropped out. Kim said he heard about 30 rapid-fire gunshots in the building.
“I stayed in my office,” he said.
Deborah Lee, who was in an English language class, said she heard five to six gunshots at first. “The teacher said, ‘Run,’ and we run,” she said. “I was OK, because I know God protects me. I’m not afraid of him.”
The suspect was detained at a Safeway supermarket about 5 kilometers from the university, about an hour after the shooting.
A security guard at the supermarket approached the man because he was acting suspiciously, KGO-TV reported. The man told the guard that he needed to talk to police because he shot people, and the guard called authorities.
“He didn’t look like he had a sign of relief on him. He didn’t look like he had much of any emotion on his face,” said Lisa Resler, who was buying fruit at Safeway with her 4-year-old daughter when she saw the man.
Goh also called his father soon after the shooting and told him what happened, the police chief said. The father also called authorities, Jordan said.
The suspect’s brother was killed in a car accident last year in Virginia while on active duty in the U.S. Army, according to the Stars and Stripes newspaper. The suspect attended the funeral of Sgt. Su Wan Ko in Centreville, Virginia, after the March 8, 2011, accident.
<관련 한글 기사>
美대학서 40대 한인 총기 난사,7명 사망!
한인들이 많이 재학하는 것으로 알려 진 미국 캘리포니아주 오클랜드 시내 오이코스 신학대학 구내에서 40대 한국계 미국 인 남성이 총기를 난사해 7명이 숨지고 3명이 부상했다.
2일 (현지시간) 미국 현지 언론 등에 따르면 이날 오전 10시33분께 대학 내 간호대학 강의실에 40대 아시아계 남성이 침입해 총기를 난사했다.
목격자들은 카키색 복장을 한 건장한 체격의 용의자가 간호대학 강의실로 들어와 교실에 있던 한 학생의 가슴에 총격을 가한 후 강의실에 있던 다른 학생들을 상대로 총기를 난사한 뒤 도주했다고 전했다.
신고를 받은 경찰은 특수기동대(SWAT)가 출동해 주변 도로를 차단하고 교직원과 학생들을 대피시켰으며, 사건이 발생한 후 1시간30분이 지난 뒤 인근 알라메다의 한 쇼핑몰에서 한국계 미국인 용의자 고모씨를 체포했다.
샌프란시스코 주재 한국총영사관 관계자는 "현지 경찰이 현재 조사를 받고 있는 용의자가 한국계 미국 시민권자라고 알려왔다"며 "이름은 '고원'라고 알려와 일단 고씨 성을 가진 사람으로 추정되지만 한국인들이 미국에서 이름을 한국식으로 쓰지 않아 추가로 파악하고 있다"고 전했다.
경찰은 현재 용의자를 상대로 구체적인 범행 내용과 동기 등을 조사중이며, 현 지시간으로 오후 6시 사건 전모에 대한 브리핑을 하겠다고 밝혔다.
이와 관련해 현지 방송은 용의자를 조사하기 위해 한국어 통역을 구하고 있다고 보도하기도 했다.
당국은 이번 사건으로 현재까지 모두 10명이 총격을 받은 것으로 파악됐으며 이 중 7명이 사망하고, 부상자 3명이 인근 병원으로 후송돼 치료를 받고 있다고 전했다.
사망자나 부상자 등 피해자 가운데 한국인이 포함돼 있는지는 아직 확인되지 않 고 있다.
익명을 요구한 학교 관계자는 "월요일인 오늘은 주로 한국인인 ESL(외국어로 배 우는 영어)코스와 간호대 수업 밖에 없어 교내 학생들이 많지 않았고, 간호대 학생들은 대부분 현지 미국인들인데다 두 강의실이 떨어져 있어 한국 학생들의 피해가 크지 않을 것으로 보이지만 현장 출입이 차단돼 정확하게 파악되지 않고 있다"고 말 했다.
총영사관 관계자도 "간호대는 영주권자 이상만 수강할 수 있어 일단 한국유학생은 없는 것으로 보인다"고 추정했다.
한국계 미국인 목사 김모씨가 10년 전 설립한 사립대(private university)인 것으로 알려진 오이코스 대학은 신학, 음악, 간호학, 동양의학 등 학과가 개설돼 있으 며, 특히 신학과 음악대학을 중심으로 한인 학생이 많은 것으로 전해졌다.
김 목사는 현지 언론과의 인터뷰에서 "사무실에 있던 중 여러발의 총성을 들었으나 사건 현장을 보지는 못했다"고 전했다.
한편 샌프란시스코 주재 한국 총영사관은 이 대학의 학생 가운데 한인들이 많은 점을 감안해 영사를 현지에 급파해 피해상황 등을 파악중이다. (연합뉴스)
