Shooting in California church kills at least one, wounds five

Reuters

9:17 JST, May 16, 2022

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Gunfire erupted at a Southern California church early on Sunday afternoon, killing at least one person and wounding five, and a suspect was taken into custody, authorities said.

The shooting occurred at Geneva Presbyterian Church in Laguna Woods, a town of 16,000 that consists of Laguna Woods Village, a retirement community for people 55 and older once known as Leisure World.

All of the victims were adults and were being taken to the hospital, the Orange County Sheriff’s Department said in a Twitter message. One victim died at the scene.

It was at least the second mass shooting of the weekend in the United States, which has been plagued with gun violence in recent years. In Buffalo, New York, on Saturday, a white 18-year-old man opened fire at a supermarket in a mostly Black neighborhood, killing 10 and wounding three in what authorities described as a purely racist attack.

Authorities in California have not made any statement regarding a possible motive in the church shooting.