Officials: At least 4 dead in California shooting spreee

Authorities said at least four people were killed Tuesday morning in Northern California after a gunman shooting at random opened fire at an elementary school and several other locations.

One student at the school was shot and wounded, police said. The gunman was killed by law enforcement officers who responded to the carnage spreading across what police described as a "very widespread area."

This latest active shooting to terrorize a community began shortly before 8 a.m., Phil Johnston, an assistant sheriff in Tehama County, told reporters in a briefing Tuesday.

Police received "multiple 911 calls of multiple different shooting sites, including the elementary school" in Rancho Tehama, a small area about 135 miles north of Sacramento, he said.

"It was very clear early on that we had a subject that was randomly picking targets," Johnston said.

While precise details about what led up to the shooting were unclear, Johnston said authorities were told by neighbors that "there was a domestic violence incident" involving the suspected attacker.

The gunfire stretched across at least seven different shooting locations, Johnston said.

One child was shot and wounded at the school. Another child was shot in a truck "that was driving down the road along with a female adult," Johnston said, though he did not identify them or specify their relationship to the gunman.

Johnston also said "a number of students" were medically evacuated from the area, while the school was cleared.

The exact ages of those killed and wounded were not immediately released by authorities. Enloe Medical Center said it had four patients from the shooting - one adult and three children. No information about their conditions was immediately available, according to a spokeswoman for the facility, located about 45 miles from the school.

After the shooting, Johnston said police recovered a semi-automatic rifle and two handguns believed to be used by the shooter.

A school official confirmed injuries following a shooting, but did not immediately provide further information.

"There was an active shooter out there earlier this morning," said Jeanine Quist, an administrative assistant with the Corning Union Elementary School District. "There were some confirmed injuries.

"We are cooperating with local law enforcement - we don't have any confirmed information at this point," but a statement from the superintendent will be forthcoming when they know more, she said.

Quist said about 10:30 a.m. local time that parents were able to get to the school to see their children.