The man accused in a shooting rampage that left four people dead, including a 9-year-old boy, at an Orange office building has been charged with murder and attempted murder.
Aminadab Gaxiola Gonzalez, 44, was identified as the suspected shooter. He was in critical but stable condition. It wasn’t clear whether he was wounded by police or shot himself during Wednesday’s attack, Amat said.
Gonzalez allegedly used a bike cable lock to lock gates to the building from the inside before opening fire, police said.
“The taking of the life of another human being is the most serious of crimes and the slaughter of multiple people while they were essentially locked in a shooting gallery is nothing short of terrifying,” District Attorney Todd Spitzer said in a statement.
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He faces four felony counts of murder, one felony count of attempted murder, and two felony counts of attempted murder of a police officer. Arraignment is expected in the next few days.
It was not immediately clear whether he has an attorney.
Gaxiola Gonzalez also was charged with four felony enhancements of the personal discharge of a firearm causing death, one felony enhancement of the personal discharge of a firearm causing great bodily injury, one felony enhancement of premeditation, one felony enhancement of the personal use of a firearm, one felony enhancement of the personal discharge of a firearm.
Prosecutors are also alleging the special circumstance of multiple murders. Gonzalez is eligible for the death penalty, Orange County prosecutors said.
Investigators said the people involved in the shooting all knew each other through personal and business relationships.
“This was not a random act of violence,” Lt. Jennifer Amat said Thursday of the attack at a two-story building that housed small businesses in Orange, southeast of Los Angeles.
Gonzalez, from nearby Fullerton, was staying at a motel in the neighboring city of Anaheim and used a rented car to arrive at the office building on Lincoln Avenue. He chained the front and rear gates to the complex with bicycle cable locks and was spotted on security video wearing a bandana over his face, brandishing a semiautomatic handgun and hauling a backpack that contained pepper spray, handcuffs and ammunition, police said.
He targeted Unified Homes, a mobile home brokerage business, authorities said.
The preliminary motive is believed to be related to a business and personal relationship between the suspect and victims, Amat said. She said the precise relationships were still being determined.
The dead included a 9-year-old boy who was found cradled in the arms of a wounded woman, who was in critical but stable condition.
Authorities identified the people killed in the California attack as Luis Tovar, 50, who owned Unified Homes; Leticia Solis Guzman, 58; and Jenevieve Raygoza, 28, and her brother, Matthew Farias, 9.