Updated at 3:30 p.m. ET
A shooter in Northern California has killed at least four people in a violent rampage that began at a home and ultimately included seven separate scenes, including an elementary school, officials say.
The shooter was killed by police, bringing the total death toll to five.
At least two children are among the wounded — a student at Rancho Tehama Elementary School in Tehama County was shot, and another child was shot in a truck along the road, according to Assistant Sheriff Phil Johnston. A woman driving the truck was also shot, and all three are being treated for their injuries.
The first calls about the shooting came in shortly before 8 a.m. local time on Tuesday, Johnston told reporters. The first calls described a shooting on Bobcat Lane; calls from multiple other sites soon came in, including the elementary school.
The subject appeared to be "randomly picking targets," Johnston said.
He said the suspected perpetrator, whose name has not been released, was involved in a "domestic violence incident" reported by neighbors before the shooting.
A "semi-automatic rifle and two handguns" were recovered from the shooting scene, Johnston said.
NPR's Nate Rott spoke to resident Tiffany Rodgers, who knows almost every student at the elementary school and heard the shooting from a nearby cafe.
Rodgers told Nate she could hear "over 100 rounds go off," and heard screaming.
The shooting is "just devastating" for the small, tight-knit community, she says.
Reporter Sara Stinson, calling Action News Now from the police roadblock, told the news channel there is a shot-up, taped-off truck on the road, and several worried parents unable to get past the roadblock and struggling to find a cell phone signal.
The Redding Record Spotlight spoke to several witnesses, including one man who told his children to take cover:
"Rancho Tehama resident Salvador Tello said he was taking his three children to school when the gunman fired at a truck in front of him. "He said he saw bullets hit the truck in front of him, so he made his children get down and put his truck in reverse. "Tello said that, as he left, he saw a woman lying dead in the street with her husband next to her, apparently wounded."
Law enforcement officers from a range of agencies have responded to the incident, including highway patrol and the FBI. Johnston said there were more than 100 officers helping cover the multiple scenes.
"It's a very sad day for us here in Tehama County," he told Action News Now, tearing up.
Rancho Tehama Elementary is a small school, serving students in pre-kindergarten through fifth grade. There are just four teachers on staff; each teaches at least two grades, according to the school newsletter.
Tehama County is a rural community about a hundred miles north of Sacramento. The largest town in the county, Red Bluff, has a population of about 14,000, according to the Census Bureau.
Gov. Jerry Brown issued a statement offering condolences to families who lost loved ones in "today's violence in Tehama County, which shockingly involved schoolchildren."
This is a breaking news story. As often happens in situations like these, some information reported early may turn out to be inaccurate. We'll move quickly to correct the record and we'll only point to the best information we have at the time.
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