ARTICLE UPDATE – DEC. 13, 2024:
One of the two children injured in the December 4 Feather River School of Seventh-Day Adventists my not regain the use of his legs.
Kindergarteners Elias Wolford, 5, and Roman Mendez, 6, were shot by a gunman. Wolford was shot in the stomach and Mendez suffered internal injuries. Immediately after the shooting, both boys were taken to a local hospital.
Wolford’s family released a statement, saying the boy experienced spinal cord damage and has not been able to move his legs since being hospitalized, reports KCRA.
The family has set up a GoFundMe page to help them pay for Wolford’s medical expenses.
ARTICLE UPDATE – DEC. 10, 2024:
The gunman who critically wounded two kindergarteners at a small religious school in Northern California was mentally ill and believed by targeting children he was carrying out “counter-measures” in response to the war in the Middle East, according to officials.
Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said a note written by the shooter said he sought to carry out the “child executions” as a “response to America’s involvement with Genocide and Oppression of Palestinians along with the attacks towards Yemen,” BBC reports.
“That’s a motivation that was in his mind. How it was that he conflated what’s going on in Palestine and Yemen with the Seventh-day Adventist Church, I can’t speculate,” said Honea. “I’m not sure that we’ll ever know that.”
Minutes before the shooting, the gunman had a meeting with the principal about enrolling a fictious grandchild at the school. Honea said the shooter had a similar meeting scheduled for the following day at another Seventh-day Adventist school.
The shooter previously attended a Seventh-day Adventist school in nearby Paradise, Calif., but had no current connections to Feather River, officials said.
Although the shooter had a lengthy criminal history, authorities said they did not find any violent crimes on his record.
Feather River Shooting Victims Show Signs of Improvement
The Oroville community held a fundraiser Monday night for the two boys wounded in the shooting — six-year-old Roman Mendez and five-year-old Elias Wolfard. Both boys’ families said they are showing signs of improvement, according to Action News Now.
On Sunday, Mendez’s sister posted on social media that her brother was awake and breathing independently. The nurses said the first words he spoke when his breathing tubes were removed were, “Where is Elias?”
Wolford’s grandmother posted on social media that he was out of surgery Friday afternoon and that doctors were able to close up his wounds.
“A little 5-year-old gets shot with a nine millimeter and survived, it’s a miracle,” said Wolfard’s aunt, Tawnee Preisner. “This has shattered his childhood, he’s still in really critical condition. All those other kids that were in the school. This is all very traumatic.”
ORIGINAL ARTICLE – DEC. 5, 2024:
OROVILLE, Calif. — Two kindergarten students were critically injured in a shooting at a private Christian school in Northern California.
Authorities responded to the Feather River Adventist School around 1 p.m. Wednesday after receiving reports of a shooting, according to ABC. Within two minutes, a trooper with the California Highway Patrol arrived on scene and located the two wounded students on the school’s playground. The boys were transported to local hospitals where they remain in critical but stable condition.
The victims have been identified as Roman Mendez, 6, and Elias Wolfard, 5. Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said Wolfard was shot once in the abdomen. Mendez’s sister says he was shot in the chest and back, noting surgeries have been successful but that he still faces a long and challenging recovery.
First responders also found the suspected gunman, 56-year-old Glenn Litton, dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound near the playground.
Students were moved into the school gym and then evacuated by bus to the Oroville Church of the Nazarene to be reunited with parents.
The school, which has about 35 students, remained closed Thursday and Friday. Butte County Office of Education crisis response staff will assist the school with its reopening, Honea said. Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey also said mass casualty unit victim assistance advocates from the DA’s offices in Butte and Sutter counties will work with students and their families.
“That will go on for weeks, months,” he said. “Not only the children that were grievously injured, but those children that saw their classmates gunned down in front of them.”
Feather River Adventist School Shooting Suspect Had Meeting with Principal Prior to Attack
Honea said the suspect called the school several days before the shooting to set up a meeting with the principal about enrolling a grandchild at the school, according to ABC News. The suspect, who was homeless, has no grandchildren and called using an alias.
“It appears to us that story was a ruse so he could set up an appointment so he had access to the campus,” said Honea.
Shortly after the meeting ended, the suspect left the building, pulled out a handgun, and opened fire on students on the playground.
Butte County Sheriff: Suspect Targeted School Due to Affiliation with Seventh-day Adventist Church
Honea says authorities had an early indication that the suspect targeted the school because of its affiliation with the Seventh-day Adventist Church. The sheriff’s office subsequently alerted police departments in Chico, Oroville, and Paradise to immediately dispatch officers to nearby schools with the same affiliation, the Enterprise-Record reports.
On Thursday, the Northern California Conference of the Seventh-day Adventist Church announced its schools would be closed for the day to “allow everyone to spend time with their families.”
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The shooter previously attended a Seventh-day Adventist school in Paradise, Calif., and had a relative who attended the Feather River Adventist School many years ago, investigators said. However, there is no known current connection between the school and the suspect.
Investigators said they found writings by the shooter that claimed the school was linked to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. He also allegedly researched another Seventh-day Adventist school in the area and had written suspicious notes that mentioned the church.
“He had significant mental health issues and pulled information from various sources and it all pulled together to form a reality that is false,” Honea said.
Suspect Had Long Criminal History, Used Ghost Gun
According to local investigators and the FBI, the suspect had a long criminal history, spending several stints in state and federal prisons for various crimes.
In the last year, the shooter was charged with new counts in both California and Arizona. In March, he was accused of stealing money from a CVS in Phoenix where he had worked.
Last month, the suspect was released from a San Bernardino County jail after he was arrested for stealing a U-Haul. He pleaded not guilty and was released on his own recognizance.
Investigators said convicted felons in the state of California cannot legally have a firearm and that it appeared the weapon used in the shooting was a ghost gun.
