The gunman suspected of shooting two women at Aviation Maintenance College in Inglewood was identified as Jesse Figueroa, 40, of Monterey Park on Saturday.
Figueroa entered the office of the Spartan Aviation and Technology College on Friday and fired two casualties with a handgun, said Mayor James Butts, former Santa Monica police chief.
“This was not a random act of violence in the city,” Butts told The Times. “This was an act of workplace violence.”
The suspect left campus in his car, but was taken into custody by Los Angeles police in Koreatown after Inglewood police shared the suspect’s license plate and vehicle description with partner agency.
He is being held on $1 million bail in connection with the shooting, prison records show.
The two victims were taken to Trauma Center in Long Beach, according to the Los Angeles County Fire Department.
Butts said one of the victims was the university’s dean and was in danger. Other universities worked at the university as a receptionist, and she was taken to hospital and was stable, he said.
“We find it scary for the family of these two women,” the mayor said.
The Butts said there was no clear motive for the shooting, but noted that Figueroa was employed as an unarmed security guard at the Inglewood campus for a short period of time.
The handgun believed to be used in the shooting is in Figueroa’s vehicle, and police are scheduled to search for the weapons Saturday when they secure a search warrant, Butts added. A 9mm shell casing was recovered on campus.
“This situation is extremely uncomfortable for the community as it promotes a sense of randomness and poses a safety threat,” Butts said. “This is a university campus. There’s no reason why there’s this type of crime in schools.”
Police spent more than an hour from campus room to room seeking suspects and additional victims, but they found no one, authorities said. Inglewood police said they cleared the campus around 5:15pm.
A student at the school told ABC7 News that he and his classmates were told to evacuate inside the campus building for about 90 minutes.
“Everyone is scared at once and we feel like we couldn’t really panic,” he told the station. “We had to stay really cool, so the police were here to do their job and we didn’t want to intervene, so I hope everyone involved is safe.”
Campus’ president Christopher Becker told ABC7 that campus has 24/7 security and regular safety training, fire drills and earthquake drills.
“We’re aviation schools, so safety is one of the things we focus on most,” Becker told the outlet. “It’s a great community of students, teachers and staff. This is difficult for all of us because we all get along really well and we care deeply about each other.”
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