REUTERS

OAKLAND (CALIFORNIA) A GUNMAN opened fire at a Christian college in California on Monday, killing at least seven people and wounding three after telling former classmates: “Get in line and I’m going to kill you all.” Police said the suspect, a 43-year-old Korean- American, surrendered at a Safeway grocery store several miles away from the scene at Oikos University in Oakland after the deadliest US school shooting in five years.

He was named by police as One Goh, a former student at Oikos, which has links to the Korean-American Christian community. Police described the man as both a Korean national and a naturalised American citizen from Korea.

They said they believed he used a handgun and acted alone.

Police did not immediately offer a motive for the rampage — which came just over a month after a student gunman in Ohio opened fire in a high school cafeteria, killing three students. It was not immediately clear why Goh had left the school.

“We haven’t interviewed him yet, so we’re still trying to put those pieces together,” Oakland police chief Howard Jordan told a news conference.

Witnesses said the gunman entered a reception area of the college at mid-morning and opened fire before walking into one of two classes in session and spraying the room with bullets.

Paul Singh, whose 19-yearold sister Devinder Kaur was shot in the arm during Monday’s rampage, told Reuters that according to his sister, the man was a former student who showed up to class for the first time in four months.

“‘Get in line and I’m going to kill you all,’ is what he said this morning, my sister told me. They thought he was joking at first,’” Singh said.

Tashi Wangchuk said his wife, 28-year-old Dechen Yangzom, was in the second classroom when she heard gunfire.

“Out of instinct, she locked the door and turned off the lights then the guy came and banged on the door and shot several rounds at the door and then he left,” Wangchuk said.

“The police said what she did was heroic.” Oakland police spokesman Johnna Watson said at least seven people had been killed and three others wounded.

It was the deadliest outburst of gun violence at a US school since a Virginia Tech student shot and killed 32 people in a 2007 massacre on that campus before killing himself.