Two people are dead and an 18-year-old recent high school graduate is under arrest after what authorities are saying was a random mass shooting in Chico that was inspired by the Columbine High School massacre of 1999.
The shooting occurred around 5:12 pm Monday at the Sherman Avenue branch of the Butte County Library in Chico. Authorities say a gunman with a single firearm entered the building and began firing, killing two men and injuring a child.
One of the victims has been identified as 46-year-old Jacob Hull of Chico, and the second victim was a 74-year-old man who has not been named pending notification of his next of kin, as KRCR reports.
The suspect, who fled out a back door of the library, was immediately taken into custody. Officers reportedly arrived within minutes of the first reports of the shooting, and as some entered through the front of the building, others created a perimeter around the back.
The suspect has been identified as 18-year-old Bradley Scott Sayer of Chico.
Chico police Chief Billy Aldridge spoke to reporters Monday evening, calling the shooting "very sad and very traumatic for our community."
Aldridge said that Sayer did not appear to have any connection to the library, and so far police do not believe that Sayer knew any of the victims. Aldridge added that Sayer's motivation "appears to be founded in a desire to commit a Columbine High School massacre type of shooting."
The Columbine High School shooting, which left 13 students and one teacher dead in Columbine, Colorado on April 20, 1999, was committed by two high school seniors, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, who took their own lives after concluding their attack.
Aldridge said that Sayer acted alone, and we may learn more about his motives or state of mind in the coming days.
At a Tuesday meeting of the Butte County Board of Supervisors, Butte County District Attorney Michael L. Ramsey said that library staff had acted heroically during the incident, and likely saved lives.
The brother of Hull, the younger of the two victims, told the California Post that his brother was taking his ex-girlfriend's child to the library while babysitting her, and that child escaped unscathed.
The shooting is also reminiscent of the Gilroy Garlic Festival shooting in July 2019, which left three people dead including a six-year-old boy. The shooter, Santino William Legan, was a disaffected 19-year-old who seemed to espouse some white supremacist ideologies and a general fascination with violence, however his motives remained mostly unclear. He took his own life at the scene of the shooting.
Anyone with information related to this incident is asked to contact the Chico Police Department at (530) 897-4911.
Photo via Google Street View
