Two boys, ages 5 and 6, were hospitalized after they were shot at a religious school and the suspected gunman is dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot in the Northern California community of Palermo on Wednesday afternoon, according to the Butte County Sheriff’s Office.
The agency said that at about 1 p.m. it received calls from Feather River Adventist School, a campus run by the Seventh-day Adventist Church, located about ten miles south of Oroville and about 60 miles north of Sacramento.
The school’s website says it serves children K-8, has been at its current location since 1965, and an update from 2022 says it had nearly 35 students.
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Emergency personnel stationed outside the Feather River Adventist School after a shooting Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024, near Oroville, Calif. (Michael Weber/The Chico Enterprise-Record via AP) -
Police tape blocks a road outside the Feather River Adventist School after a shooting Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024, near Oroville, Calif. (Michael Weber/The Chico Enterprise-Record via AP)
Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said that the preliminary investigation indicates that the suspect, an adult man, came onto the campus to meet with the principal to discuss the possibility of enrolling a student.
Shortly after that, the principal heard shots being fired and school officials determined that the boys were shot, Honea said.
Sheriff Honea said that the boys were taken to a hospital, one by helicopter.
The suspected gunman is believed to have died from a self-inflicted gunshot, and the suspected weapon was a handgun, Honea said.
The remaining students were sequestered in the gym and eventually taken to the Oroville Church of the Nazarene in Oroville to be reunited with their parents.
“This is horribly tragic. It is hard to come up with the words. We’re operating on adrenaline, doing the things that need to be done…we worked hard to make sure that students are reunified with their parents,” Honea said to media gathered near the school.
Honea said that there was no indication that the suspect had any contact with the school until Wednesday and that there did not appear to be a relation between the suspect and the children shot or the school.
Honea also said that officials did not believe that a child was present during the meeting with the administrator.
The suspect is believed to have been dropped off by a gray 4-door sedan that may have been a rideshare vehicle and that left immediately after, Honea said, adding that anyone with information about the suspect or the vehicle call 530-538-7322.
“We’re no stranger to those kinds of things, but when you’re talking about little kids like this, who can’t defend themselves, it really does tear at the heart,” Honea said.
This article will be updated as more information becomes available.
