The 16-year-old gunman who opened fire at a Southern California high school in Santa Clarita, killing two students and injuring three others, has died.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff´s Department in a statement confirmed that Nathaniel Tennosuke Berhow who turned 16 on the day of the attack died at about 3:30pm Friday at a hospital with his mother present.
At around 7.30am on Thursday, November 14, Berhow was filmed on surveillance cameras retrieving a .45 semi-automatic rifle from his backpack at Saugus High School in Santa Clarita, California.
Authorities said he fired five shots, counting out each one, before turning the gun on himself to use up his last bullet in a failed suicide attempt, which left him in critical condition at the hospital.
Berhow killed 14-year-old Dominic Blackwell, 16-year-old Gracie Muehlberger, and injured Mia Page Tretta, another girl called Addison with a teenage boy who has not been named.
The motive behind the attack is still yet unknown.
At a press conference, LA County Sheriff Alex Villanueva said: ‘We did not find any manifesto, any diary that spelled it out, any suicide note or any writings which will clearly identify his motive behind this assault.’
Berhow gave no warning of what he was about to do, the sheriff said.
‘He was just standing by himself, at one point walked to the center of the quad, withdrew the firearm and just started firing,’ Villanueva said, adding that he looked ‘very familiar with a firearm’.
The LA County Sheriff also disclosed that authorities recovered an additional six weapons in the suspect’s home, on top of guns that were registered to his late father, and the rifle he used in the attack.
