The latest school shooting happened last Thursday when a student opened fired at Saugus High School in Santa Clarita, California. Two students were killed and three others were wounded by 16-year-old Nathaniel Berhow. The teenager is among those injured after he suffered a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He remains in serious condition.
People across the country watched in horror as this same scene unfolded yet again at an American school. One of those people was The Ranch star Kelli Goss, who is from Santa Clarita.
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“Spent my day glued to the news, texting family and teacher friends, listening to seemingly never ending helicopters and sirens with the heaviest heart,” she wrote on Instagram. “It finally came to MY hometown. This isn’t normal. This shouldn’t be these KIDS’ new normal. Praying for the faculty, students and their families and the entire community that’s hurting right now.”
The calls for help first came in before 8 a.m. on Thursday and Los Angeles County Fire Department was the first to respond. Saugus and all of the area schools were placed on lockdown. Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva confirmed that all of the victims in the shooting are between the ages of 14 and 16 years-old.
The shooter’s motive is still unclear. Authorities say he carried a handgun onto school grounds in his backpack before opening fire seemingly at random. It was Berhow’s 16th birthday. He is a Boy Scout and a member of the school’s track team.
Students described the terrifying situation. “We heard the first gunshot, and we all thought it was a balloon popping, but it was too loud for a balloon to pop,” sophomore Brooklyn Moreno told ABC7.
“Then it went one, two and we all just started running and people were falling in front of me, and I ran across the street to someone’s house and stayed there till my parents picked me up. (The sound of gunfire) felt like towards me in the quad, but I heard it was somewhere else towards the choir room, but I have no clue.”
“I heard the second and third (gunshot) and then I knew it was gunfire,” student Alexa Funk added. “There were kids running everywhere… I saw people falling to the floor. I also fell and got a little thing on my knee.”
There have been two more mass shootings in just the four days since the Santa Clarita incident. On Sunday, four people were killed and six wounded at a shooting during a football watch party. And on Monday, three people were shot and killed at a Walmart in Oklahoma.
