A gunman suspected of capturing two girls at an aviation upkeep school in Inglewood was recognized Saturday as Jesse Figueroa, 40, of Monterey Park, who had not too long ago been employed as a safety guard on the campus.
Figueroa walked into an workplace at Spartan Faculty of Aeronautics and Know-how on Friday and opened hearth on the 2 victims with a handgun, mentioned Inglewood Mayor James Butts, a former police chief for the town of Santa Monica.
“This was not any act of random violence within the metropolis,” Butts advised The Instances. “This was an act of office violence.”
The suspect drove away from the campus in his automobile, however was taken into custody by Los Angeles police Friday evening in Koreatown after Inglewood police shared an outline of the suspect’s license plate and automobile with accomplice businesses, in keeping with Butts, who mentioned Figueroa was in custody in Inglewood’s metropolis jail.
He’s being held on a $1-million bail in connection to the capturing, in keeping with jail data.
The 2 victims had been taken to a trauma middle in Lengthy Seashore, in keeping with the Los Angeles County Fireplace Division, which didn’t launch their names.
Butts mentioned one of many victims was a dean on the school and was in vital situation. The opposite works on the school as a receptionist and he or she was taken to the hospital and was steady, he mentioned.
“We really feel horrible for the households of those two women,” the mayor mentioned.
Butts mentioned there wasn’t a transparent motive for the capturing, however famous Figueroa has been employed on the Inglewood campus for a short while as an unarmed safety guard.
The handgun believed for use within the capturing is in Figueroa’s automobile and police plan to seek for the weapon as soon as they safe a search warrant Saturday, Butts added. A 9mm shell casing was recovered on the campus.
“Conditions like this are very jarring for a group as a result of it promotes a way of randomness and threatens security,” Butts mentioned. “This can be a school campus; you see no purpose that there could be this kind of crime at college.”
Police spent greater than an hour going from room to room on the campus in quest of a suspect or further victims, however didn’t discover anybody, authorities mentioned. Inglewood police mentioned they cleared the campus about 5:15 p.m.
A scholar on the faculty advised ABC7 Information that he and his classmates had been advised to shelter inside a campus constructing for about 90 minutes.
“Everyone type of obtained terrified without delay and I simply really feel like we actually couldn’t panic,” he advised the station. “We actually needed to simply type of keep cool and the police had been right here to do their job and we simply didn’t wish to intervene, so I hope everyone that was concerned is protected.”
Campus President Christopher Becker advised ABC7 that there’s 24/7 safety on campus and common security drills, hearth drills and earthquake drills.
“We’re an aviation faculty, so security is among the issues that we give attention to probably the most,” Becker advised the outlet. “It’s a pleasant group of scholars and lecturers and workers. All of us get alongside rather well, care about each other deeply and so that is arduous on all of us.”
