SEAL BEACH, Calif. — A gunman opened fire Wednesday in a busy hair salon, killing eight people and critically wounding another while leaving bodies scattered throughout the business in a Southern California beach community.
The gunman got into a car and drove away from Salon Meritage after opening fire about 1:30 p.m. The suspect was stopped by officers about a half-mile away and surrendered without incident, said police Sgt. Steve Bowles.
His name was not immediately released.
Police were struggling to determine the motive.
“There may be something to the motive as to a relationship with somebody in the salon,” Bowles said. “That is our assumption.”
Seal Beach has seen just one other homicide in the past four years.
Police responding to a report of shots fired found six people dead and three wounded. Two of the injured died at a hospital. The third was listed in critical condition.
Bowles said bodies of the victims were scattered throughout the salon, along with two of the wounded. The other wounded person, a man, was found outside the building. It wasn’t clear whether he was trying to flee when he was shot and whether he was the one survivor.
“We’re unsure at this point if (the gunman) shot from the entrance and people, as they were shot, ran in seeking cover or seeking shelter, but we have fatalities throughout the salon,” Bowles told reporters. “From my observation, it did look like people were seeking shelter at the time,” he said.
He said the salon was busy at the time, with every hair-dressing station in operation.
He didn’t know what type of weapon was used or whether the gunman used more than one.
Salon employee Lorainne Bruielle, who wasn’t working Wednesday, told the Long Beach Press-Telegram the gunman was the husband of another employee.
The suspect was cooperative when officers, following a description of the shooter, stopped him nearby. He told them he had multiple weapons in his car, Bowles said.
The killings stunned this normally quiet beachfront community of about 25,000. It is home to Leisure World, a gated senior citizen community of 9,000 people, as well as the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station military complex.
“Obviously, a crime of this magnitude is something that Seal Beach is not familiar with,” Bowles told reporters.
