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Fourteen people were killed and 17 were wounded after up to three shooters opened fire with long guns inside the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino Wednesday, according to city police.
Firefighters set up triage areas in response to an active shooter incident in San Bernardino on Dec. 2, 2015. (Credit: KTLA)
The shooters remained at large, and investigators do not know where they are or what their motive was, San Bernardino Police Department Chief Jarrod Burguan said at a 2 p.m. news conference. Police did not exchange gunfire with anyone, he said.
David Bowdich, who directs the FBI's Los Angeles Field Office, said authorities do not know if the shooting is a "terrorist incident."
"At minimum, we have a domestic terrorist-type situation here," Burguan said. "They came prepared to do what they did, as if they were on a mission."
The call first came in at 10:59 a.m. of multiple shots fired from the area of 1365 S. Waterman Ave. The Police Department's SWAT team was training nearby and was suited, "ready to roll" and responded rapidly, Lt. Richard Lawhead said.
A man who received a call from his daughter as she huddled in a bathroom while hearing gunfire told KTLA that the shooting was inside a holiday or awards party attended by San Bernardino County employees.
Burguan said it was not clear if the incident occurred at a meeting or a holiday luncheon or some other type of event. The victims seemed to all be in one area of the facility, which hosts both state and county employees, as well as a number of organizations, he said.
Police and firefighters responded to an active shooter incident in San Bernardino on Dec. 2, 2015. (Credit: KTLA)
Video from the scene showed multiple people being placed on stretchers amid a triage area on the street. People were seen being escorted away from the shooting scene.
Burguan said that preliminary numbers indicated upwards of 14 people were killed and more than 14 were injured in the shooting at the Inland Regional Center, which he called a "massive facility."
Later in the afternoon, a police spokeswoman said the number of injured had increased to 17.
If the number of dead remains at 14, the mass shooting could prove to be the deadliest in the U.S. since 20 children and six staff members were killed by gunman Adam Lanza at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012.
"Up to three people had entered the building and opened fire on people inside the building," Burguan said of the incident in San Bernardino, about 55 miles east of downtown Los Angeles. "Information that I think is probably the most reliable at this point is that the suspects have fled, potentially in a dark-colored SUV."
Witnesses told police that they saw three men with long rifles get into a black SUV and exit the parking lot, CNN reported, citing a law enforcement source. Burguan said preliminary information indicated the shooters "came prepared" and were armed with long guns, not handguns.
The specific type of weapons used had not been confirmed, and none were recovered at the scene, the chief said.
While the SWAT Team cleared the building, a bomb squad located a suspicious package on the center's second floor, a source told CNN. Teams found items that caused concern while searching the building, but it wasn't known if the objects were brought in by the shooters.
As the active shooting situation unfolded, sheriff's officials were warning people to avoid the area.
A "hard closure" was set up at Orange Show Road / Waterman Avenue and Park Center Circle in San Bernardino, the Sheriff's Department tweeted.
A San Bernardino police SWAT team responds to a possible multivictim shooting incident on Dec. 2, 2015. (Credit: Doug Saunders/San Bernardino Sun)
The FBI and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms were responding.
A spokesperson from Loma Linda University Medical Center said confirmed just after 1 p.m. that four adult patients were being treated there, and that at least three more were expected. She could not provide the condition of the patients.
Arrowhead Regional Medical Center was treating six patients, according to a tweet from the county.
It was unknown how many people were in the Inland Regional Center at the time of the incident.
Nearly 670 staff members at the center provide services to 30,200 people of all ages with developmental disabilities and their families in San Bernardino and Riverside counties, according to the center's Facebook page.
Dave Hall, whose daughter goes to the facility, told KTLA that the center is used by those with mild to severe autism.
"Who would think of such a thing to make an attack at that kind of facility?" Hall said.
People are seen near the Inland Regional Center after a mass shooting on Dec. 2, 2015. (Credit: KTLA)
An emergency Board of Supervisors meeting was cancelled and the building where the meeting was set to be held was evacuated, authorities on scene said. Nearby city and county facilities were closed, as were courthouses, county Sheriff John McMahon said.
All San Bernardino city schools were on lockdown, the school district said in a statement.
Anyone with info regarding the incident can leave anonymous tips with investigators by calling the We-Tip hotline at 1-800-782-7463.
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