A shooting at a Church in California on Sunday left at least one person dead and five others injured before churchgoers subdued the suspect and hog-tied him in what officials called an act of “exceptional heroism and bravery”. This is the second mass deadly shooting in the United Sates over the weekend.
The shooting was reported just before 13:30 on Sunday (20:30 GMT) at a Geneva Presbyterian Church located Laguna Woods, a town of 16 000 that consists of Laguna Woods Village, a retired community for people older than 55 once known as Leisure World, which is about 80 kilometres (50 miles) southeast of Los Angeles, the Orange County Sheriff’s Department said on Twitter.
Between 30 and 40 members of the Irvine Taiwanese Presbyterian Church were gathered for lunch after a church service hand ended at Geneva when gunfire went off shortly after 13:30. When the officials arrived the suspect was already tied up, officials said.
“That group of churchgoers displayed what we believe is exceptional heroism and bravery in intervening to stop the suspect. They undoubtedly prevented additional injuries and fatalities. I think its safe to say that had people not intervened, it could have been much worse,” Undersheriff Jeff Hallock said.
The suspect in the shooting, an Asian man in his 60s, was taken into custody and two handguns were recovered at the scene. The motive for the shooting was unknown and the investigators don’t believe that the suspect lives around the neighbourhood.
Source: Al Jazeera, CBC News, The Guardian, image from CBC News