………Azusa police chief, Steve Hunt, said the suspect is a female armed with a semi-automatic assault rifle and had barricaded herself into a residence.
A woman armed with an assault rifle killed one person and injured three near a polling place before barricading herself inside a house in California.
Azusa police Chief Steve Hunt says the suspect began firing at arriving officers who returned fire before they took cover near a park.
Officers were initially pinned down as they arrived on the scene, about 25 miles northeast of Los Angeles, Azusa police and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office said.
Initially, police said two to three people, all civilians, were struck by gunfire at around 2pm, though their conditions were not immediately known.
A sheriff’s sergeant said later that four people had been wounded.
The Azusa Police Department subsequently wrote on Twitter that one person had been killed, two were taken to hospitals in critical condition and there was ‘one additional down near primary residence.’
There was no immediate indication that the incident was related to Election Day or the polling station, said Deputy Vincent Plair, a spokesman for sheriff’s department.
But the Los Angeles County Registrar and Recorder’s office issued a Twitter advisory urging voters to avoid the area around two polling locations, one in Memorial Park and one in Dalton Elementary School, and to cast their ballots at alternate polling sites.
‘Voters should avoid the area and, if necessary, cast a ballot at an alternate polling location,’ LA County Registrar Dean Logan said on Twitter.
A dispatcher answering phones at a nearby fire station that also was serving as a polling place said that location remained opened to voters.
He added there were conflicting reports of a second suspect, who is reportedly a man dressed in tactical gear.
Polling stations are on lockdown and a manhunt is underway for a ‘heavily armed’ gunman who killed one person and injured another three in California
Polling stations are on lockdown and a manhunt is underway for a ‘heavily armed’ gunman who killed one person and injured another three in California
Police officers are seen at the scene of a shooting near a polling station, in Azusa, California
Hunt said six police officers responded to the shooting, but none of them were hurt. He confirmed all the victims were adults, but did not elaborate further.
Nearby Memorial Park, a polling station, was locked down and later evacuated, he said.
Two schools, Slauson Middle School and Mountain View Elementary School, were also locked down and were being evacuated, Chief Hunt said.
Two people were airlifted to hospitals and a fourth was being treated, he added. But he was unable to say whether the four people had been shot.
Azusa Police said the shooting began at 2.02pm with reports of shots fired near Memorial Park at 320 N Orange Avenue.
Police said no arrests have been made and advised residents to shelter in place until further notice
A nearby elementary school that’s also a polling place was on lockdown after the shooting.
About 20 people were casting ballots when the gunfire erupted.
