SAN BERNARDINO (CBSLA.com) — Fourteen people were confirmed killed and 14 more wounded in a mass shooting at a San Bernardino community social services building.
“We do have some preliminary numbers of upwards of 14 people that are dead and upwards of 14 people that are injured,” said Chief Jarrod Burguan of San Bernardino Police.
The shooting was first reported at about 10:59 a.m. at the Inland Regional Center, 1365 South Waterman Avenue. The gunfire erupted in a conference room being rented by an outside group, according to Maybeth Fields of the Inland Regional Center. She said she was not aware of which outside group, but another worker told reporters he believed the group was a San Bernardino County public agency.
Authorities were still clearing the “massive facility” as of 2:15 p.m., Burguan said.
He added it’s believed the suspects have fled, possibly in a dark-colored SUV.
San Bernardino police Sgt. Vicki Cervantes said that there are believed to be multiple shooters wearing military-style gear.
While no motive for the shooting was immediately known, FBI Asst. Director David Bowdich told reporters, “I will tell you right now, we do not know if this is a terrorist incident.”
People waiting to be reunited with loved ones who were at or working in the Inland Regional Center should go to the Hernandez Center at 3rd St. and Sierra Way, where police will meet with them.
Patients have been taken to several local hospitals, including Arrowhead Regional Medical Center, St. Bernardine Medical Center and Loma Linda University Medical Center. Uninjured workers were shuttled to a church in Colton.
Hundreds of people with their hands raised were seen by Chopper 9 being evacuated from the building. Many were escorted to the San Bernardino Public Golf Course across the street.
CBS2/KCAL9’s Crystal Cruz said she spoke to a man who said he received several texts from his daughter Holly, who was inside the building when the shooting began.
The first text read: “Dad shooting at my work, shot people in office. Waiting for cops to catch him. Pray for us.”
The father told Cruz he texted back to his daughter, “Hide find a good spot hide now.”
Holly texted back: “I am but we are locked in an office. Cops SWAT helicopter, everything here.”
Another woman who identified herself as Monique said she received a text from her sister Gina, who was inside the building, that read: “There’s a shoot out at my work I’m scared.”
Law enforcement sources said a suspicious package had also been discovered and that a bomb squad is in the process of trying to neutralize the device, according to CBS News.
Paul Lacroix, whose son Garrett works inside the Inland Resource Center, said he told his son to hunker down, turn his cell phone off and to not make any noise.
“It’s just not good,” Lacroix said of the situation. “It’s something that we’re starting to learn to have to live with. We just have to learn to take better stands for what we’re doing.”
On speaker phone, Garrett Lacroix said that people inside the building were shook up and were being given water bottles.
“The fire alarm went off, but then someone started shouting in the halls there was a possible bomb so we were all told to get back into our office. Eventually we saw officers with vests and automatic weapons so we retreated to our room,” Garrett Lacroix said.
Garrett said a message over the intercom later instructed them to exit with their hands in the air and nothing in them.
Mark Scroggins was waiting outside the building, waiting for word of his daughter, who works inside.
“This is crazy. There’s too many shootings. too many bad things going on out here. You hear about it, but this is insane. This is crazy,” he said.
Authorities advised all motorists to stay away from the area.
The Inland Regional Center is a sprawling three-story center serving people with developmental disabilities in San Bernardino and Riverside counties. The non-profit private agency, whose site crashed due to traffic due to news of the shooting, employs nearly 700 people and serves more than 30,000 residents with developmental disabilities for ages ranging from infants to seniors 60 years and older, according to the center’s Facebook page.
The agency had just celebrated with a holiday party the day before.
Several Other local and federal agencies were also at the scene to assist San Bernardino Police in the incident.
One woman at the scene said she was not waiting on anyone inside the Inland Regional Center, but on her children at the nearby Norton Space and Aeronautics Academy, a charter school.
“I actually have kids at the school on the next block, and they’re on lockdown,” she said. “We can’t get them, they can’t come out. I tried going over there, but they won’t let me go.”
San Bernardino City Unified School District officials said all its schools and offices were placed on full lockdown, but that each campus was scheduled to dismiss student on time.
“As far as people in the area, we’re doing everything we can to keep this area safe. We are addressing other facilities in the area we think may be similar, but we don’t have any other information or any credible threats to any other facilities at this point,” Burguan said. “Obviously we are all on a heightened sense of alert. We would ask the public that they be on a heightened sense of alert, that they’re watching out for those things and if they come across information, contact us and let us investigate.”
This is a breaking news report. More information will be added as it comes in.
