Last Updated Nov 15, 2017 5:55 PM EST
CORNING, Calif. — A tiny Northern California elementary school would have turned into a “bloodbath” if not for quick action by school workers who rushed small children inside and locked down the building, thwarting a gunman on a deadly mission, authorities said.
Kevin Janson Neal repeatedly shot into Rancho Tehama Elementary School while trying to get inside. He eventually got frustrated and left.
“There is no doubt that he did not want to give up,” Tehama County Assistant Sheriff Phil Johnston said Wednesday. “I really, truly believe we would have had a horrific bloodbath at that school if that school hadn’t taken the action that it did.”
Photo provided by the Tehama County Sheriff’s Office shows Kevin Janson Neal, the gunman behind a rampage in Northern California.
AP
The school has about 100 children in kindergarten through fifth grade and four certified teachers, according to its website.
Some students had finished breakfast while others were being dropped off when Neal started firing Tuesday morning. School officials heard shots and quickly made the critical decision to place the school on lockdown. The school district says the gunman crashed his vehicle through a locked gate and began firing dozens of shots on the campus.
The head of the maintenance department for the school district says a heroic custodian rushed straggling kids inside before the gunman could reach them, yelling “get into the classrooms.”
Randy Morehouse with the Corning Union Elementary School District says the gunman tried repeatedly to get into a kindergarten classroom and fired into the room before he ran off to reload.
The gunman shot out windows and through walls, according to the school district. One student was wounded by gunfire and others sustained injuries from broken glass.
Coy Ferreira told Redding television station KRCR that he was dropping off his daughter for kindergarten when gunfire erupted and a secretary ran out and yelled for the kids to race inside.
Ferreira said he ended up in a classroom with 14 students cowering under desks while shots rang out. Some bullets hit the windows and a boy was shot in the chest and foot, he said. The child is expected to survive.
Corning Union Elementary School District Superintendent Richard Fitzpatrick said he was alerted to the shooting by a brave secretary hiding under a desk as her fingers typed overhead.
Neal fatally shot five people, including his wife, before authorities killed him in Rancho Tehama Reserve, a rural community about 130 miles north of Sacramento.
Hospital officials say five other people shot during the gunman’s deadly rampage remain hospitalized, including a child who they say is in fair condition.
“School staff is commended for their courageous and professional response to this terrible incident,” the school district said in a statement. “The school was able to go on lockdown very quickly and effectively, which prevented any further injury or violence.”
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