Officials: Many Victims in California Shooting
Updated
VOA News
At least 14 victims dead and 14 injured are reported at the press conference from a shooting at a handicapped training center in San Bernardino, California, an hour east of Los Angeles. There are fatalities, but it is not yet clear how many.
The local sheriff’s department says as many as three shooters may be involved.
Police say officers are trying to determine if any active shooters are still on the scene. They are warning people to stay in place and keep away from the neighborhood.
A police spokeswoman told the Los Angeles Times the suspects were heavily armed and possibly wearing body armor. A bomb squad was reported on the scene, trying to defuse what was believed to be an explosive device.
Federal weapons agents and the FBI are on the scene, and doctors at a nearby hospital say they are getting ready for what could be an influx of wounded.
The facility where the shooting took place, the Inland Regional Center, was founded more than 40 years ago to help people with developmental disabilities with life skills.
The two leading U.S. presidential candidates already have reacted by Twitter messages. Democrat Hillary Clinton said she refuses «to accept this as normal. We must take action to stop gun violence now.»
With details still coming in, Republican Donald Trump said the shooting «looks very bad.» He wished good luck to officers on the scene and said this is when police are «so appreciated.»
President Barack Obama was briefed on the shootings and was said to be closely following the unfolding events.
This shooting comes less than a week after a gunman killed three people and wounded nine in a shooting rampage at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, Colorado. In October, a gunman killed nine people at a college in Oregon and in June a white gunman killed nine black churchgoers in South Carolina.