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Four dead in shooting at California elementary school

A gunman opened fire Tuesday morning at a home and elementary school in Northern California — killing four people and wounding several others, including two children, before being shot dead by cops, according to local reports.

Undersheriff Phil Johnston of the Tehama County Sheriff’s Office said there were seven shooting scenes and that there may be more victims, the Redding Record Searchlight reported.

Several students were airlifted from the shooting scene at Rancho Tehama School near the community of Corning, about 120 miles north of Sacramento, according to KCRA.

At least 100 police officers rushed to the Rancho Tehama School near the community of Corning, about 120 miles north of Sacramento, and killed the gunman, according to reports.

Johnston said the shooter had been “randomly picking targets.”

Police later recovered a semi-automatic rifle and two handguns believed to have been used by the gunman.

Ten shooting victims were taken to various hospitals across the region, according to the Record Searchlight.

“I know that we have medevaced a number of students, I know that the school has been cleared, I know that we have the children that were attending school in a safe location at this time,” Johnston said.

One of the injured children is a 6-year-old who was flown to Mercy Medical Center in Redding with two gunshot wounds, the Record Searchlight reported.

A second child was reported to have been shot in the leg, according to emergency dispatch reports.

A 30-year-old man also was taken to a hospital with a gunshot wound to the thigh, according to the news outlet.

The mayhem erupted after 8 a.m. local time at a home in Rancho Tehama — a town of 1,500 west of Corning in Tehama County — and then continued at the school, KCRA reported.

Brian Flint, 27, who lives near the gunman, told the Record Searchlight that he received a call that his roommate was injured and that his truck had been stolen.

He later told the Red Bluff Daily News that his roommate was among those killed.

“The crazy thing is that the neighbor has been shooting a lot of bullets lately, hundreds of rounds, large magazines,” Flint said. “We made it aware that this guy is crazy and he’s been threatening us.”

Living near the gunman, a known felon who often harassed his neighbors, was “hell,” Flint said.

Another resident, Salvador Tello, told the Record Searchlight that he was taking his three children to school when the gunman fired at a truck in front of him.

He said he made his kids get down before he put his truck in reverse and sped off as he saw a woman lying dead in the street with her wounded husband next to her.

Initial reports said someone was barricaded inside a structure.

Katrina Gierman, who lives in Rancho Tehama near the school, said she went outside and heard gunshots.

“I have not left my house because I am with my newborn son,” Gierman said. “Very scary moment. I have the right to bear arms, and I will protect my son if I have to.”

Jeanine Quist, an administrative assistant with the Corning Union Elementary School District, confirmed the school was on lockdown, as was the nearby Rancho Tehama Airport.

“We are cooperating with local law enforcement — we don’t have any confirmed information at this point,” she said.

A local TV reporter described frantic parents trying to get to their children at the school.

Rosie DeOliveira, administrative assistant at the Rancho Tehama Association, said police ordered citizens to “shelter in place.”

“Our doors are locked,” she said.

The FBI “is sending some — teams up to assist at the request of Tehama County authorities,” Jason Wandel at the FBI’s Sacramento field office told the Record Searchlight.

US Sen. Kamala Harris said on Twitter that she was “heartbroken” about the shooting and “closely monitoring the situation.”

“Grateful to the officers and first responders on the scene,” she wrote.