CNN is reporting this morning that six people have been killed in the Bakersfield, California area during an overnight shooting rampage.
Sheriff’s deputies from Kern County responded to reports of shots fired at a trucking company near Highway 58 and Weedpatch Highway, at 5:20 p.m.
A gunman in southern California killed five people, including his wife, before turning the gun on himself as a sheriff's deputy closed in Wednesday. https://t.co/ABHqYZDNv1
— NBC4 Washington (@nbcwashington) September 13, 2018
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What they found there was the beginning of a multiple murder that took place over multiple locations, deputies said.
Sheriff Donny Youngblood of Kern County said he does not know the reason behind the shootings at this time.
Youngblood did say that the shootings started when the now-deceased suspect entered the trucking company with his wife.
The suspect then reportedly confronted a man he knew at the trucking company location, and then shot and killed the man, and then turned the gun on his wife, and shot and killed her also.
Youngblood said he described the events as they are believed to have happened based on his investigation of the incident so far.
After the initial two murders, another man reportedly entered the business, saw what had happened, and fled the scene while the suspect began shooting at him. The suspect chased the second man out of the trucking business and around to the front of another business called Bear Mountain Sports. There he was able to catch up to him, so he shot and killed the second man also, Youngblood disclosed.
The suspect then left the initial murder scenes and drove his vehicle to a residence on Breckenridge Road, where he confronted two men, before shooting and killing them also.
The suspect then went to Fillmore Avenue, where he hijacked a car which had a woman and child in it. The Sheriff said that the woman and child were unharmed and they were able to escape to safety.
The shooter then reportedly drove to Edison Highway, where he was seen by a sheriff’s deputy, at which time the suspect drove into a parking lot. When he was approached by the deputy, the suspect put the gun to his chest and shot and killed himself
When asked about the length of time from the first shooting at the trucking business until the suspect killed himself, Youngblood said, “I think it was a very short amount of time, about 10 or 15 minutes.â€
Youngblood also said that his department has interviewed more than 30 people so far during the investigation and five search warrants have been served. Only one weapon had been recovered by the time of the sheriff’s press conference.
In his only commentary concerning the case, Youngblood said:
“Six people lost their lives in a very short period of time. This is highly unusual. This is the new normal, if you look across the country, these types of shootings.â€
This was the largest mass murder in California since the San Bernardino shooting in December of 2015 which killed 14 people.
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