California authorities believe a shooter may have targeted a school and critically injured two children because of its religious affiliation with the Seventh-day Adventist church.
On Wednesday afternoon, a gunman opened fire at Feather River Adventist School in Butte County, wounding two kindergarteners before he took his own life.
“We were going in for lunch recess, and basically everybody in my classroom heard shooting, and most people were screaming,” sixth grader Jocelyn Orlando told CBS News Sacramento. “We all went into the office, we closed the curtains, locked the doors, basically did what we would do in a school shooting, and then one of the teachers came, and we all ran into the gym.”
Following the attack on the religious school, Butte County Sheriff Kony Honea said authorities had “received some information that leads us to believe that the subject responsible for the shooting targeted this school because of its affiliation with the Seventh-day Adventist Church.”
“Whether or not this is a hate crime or whether or not it’s part of some sort of larger scheme at this point. I don’t have enough information to provide an answer to that,” he continued.
Approximately 35 students attend the tiny northern California K-8 school located in Palermo.
Police revealed Wednesday that two boys enrolled in the school’s kindergarten who were injured are in “extremely critical condition.”
“I am thankful that they’re still alive, but they’ve got a long road ahead of them,” Honea said.
The shooter, whose identity has not yet been released, had no known connection to the school.
The FBI has launched an investigation into the incident, saying in a press conference that it is “doing an entire work-up of the subject, to get a better understanding of his motivation, ideology.”
Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) put out a statement on X saying the community had been “shattered by senseless gun violence.”
Assemblyman James Gallagher, a top Republican lawmaker in the state whose area includes Butte County, said his “heart is breaking for everyone impacted by this tragedy” and called for more armed officers at every school in an X post.
A shooting last year that took place at a small Christian school in Tennessee also raised questions about whether it was targeted because of its religious affiliation. Authorities have not yet come to a final conclusion on the motive behind the Covenant School shooting, in which six people were killed.
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However, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) is among the lawmakers who have described the massacre as a “hate crime.”
“A crime that according to Nashville police, specifically targeted, that’s their word, targeted, the members of this Christian community, the members of this religious institution,” he said in a press release in 2023.
