The two Kindergarteners wounded when a shooter opened fire at a California elementary school have been identified, along with the attacker.
At a press conference on Thursday, Dec. 5, Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea identified the victims of the Wednesday shooting at Feather River Adventist School as Roman Mendez, 6, and Elias Wolfard, 5.
Honea said the students at the Oroville, Calif., school are in “critical but stable condition.” Roman suffered two gunshot wounds while Elias was shot once in the abdomen, according to the sheriff, who added that they have a long road to recovery ahead.
Honea identified the shooter as Glenn Litton, 56, and said the shooter entered the school and shot the two children before dying by suicide.
Litton had a “lengthy criminal history” including theft and forgery convictions, Honea said.
According to Honea, Litton used a meeting with school administrators about enrolling a child there as a “ruse” to get into the school building. Litton, posing as “Michael Sanders,” was also given a tour of the school. After the tour, Litton is believed to have walked towards the bathroom, which is when staff reportedly began to hear gunshots and screaming, the sheriff said.
Glenn Litton.
Butte County Sheriff’s Office
Police received a 911 call around 1 p.m. that day and found the shooter dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound when officers arrived at the scene, authorities said.
According to Honea, investigators believe the school was targeted because of its religious affiliation with the Seventh-day Adventist Church. The shooter himself had attended another Seventh-day Adventist school as a child about 20 miles away in Paradise, Calif.
In a statement shared following the shooting, Oroville Mayor David Pittman said that the city’s “thoughts and prayers” are with the child victims, adding “our schools must plan and train for these kinds of events and pray they never occur.”
