Public ‘hogtied’ California church gunman with extension cord, police say
One person is dead, four others are “critically” wounded and another person has “minor” injuries after a gunman opened fire inside a church in southern California on Sunday afternoon.
Emergency dispatchers received a call of a shooting inside Geneva Presbyterian Church in Laguna Woods at 1.26pm PT on 15 May, according to the Orange County Sheriff’s Office .
All victims are adults and have been admitted to area hospitals.
A suspect, described by police as an Asian man in his 60s, was detained at the scene and two handguns have been recovered.
The church in Laguna Woods – a city of roughly 16,000 people roughly 50 miles south of Los Angeles – held its weekly in-person worship services earlier on Sunday.
About 30 to 40 people, many of them Taiwanese, were inside the church during the shooting, police said.
A statement from the office of Governor Gavin Newsom said officials “no one should have to fear going to their place of worship. Our thoughts are with the victims, community, and all those impacted by this tragic event.”
The shooting comes one day after a gunman killed 10 people in a grocery store in an apparent racist attack in Buffalo, New York, among the deadliest mass shootings in 2022.
