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One dead, three wounded at Californian polling station

Author
Newstalk ZB staff ,
Publish Date
Wed, 9 Nov 2016, 12:29PM
Police and SWAT vehicles were in residential area of Azusa following a shooting. Photo / KTLA
Police and SWAT vehicles were in residential area of Azusa following a shooting. Photo / KTLA

One dead, three wounded at Californian polling station

Author
Newstalk ZB staff ,
Publish Date
Wed, 9 Nov 2016, 12:29PM

UPDATED 4.04pm One person has been killed and three others were hit by gunfire near a polling station in a Southern California town.

Authorities locked down the polling place, a surrounding park and adjacent schools, officials said on Tuesday.

There was no indication that the incident about at Azusa, a town 40km northeast of Los Angeles, was related to election day, said Deputy Vincent Plair, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

But at least one of the victims was hit by gunfire on the way to the polling station to vote, the Los Angeles Times reported, citing a law enforcement source.

The circumstances of the shooting, and even the number of perpetrators, remained murky.

Police responding to a report of gunshots came under fire themselves and were initially pinned down as they arrived on the scene, according to accounts from Azusa police and the sheriff's department.

Officers returned fire, then surrounded a house where the shooting appeared to have originated, believing they had cornered at least one suspect, a woman carrying an assault rifle with "rapid-fire capability," inside the dwelling, Azusa Police Chief Steve Hunt told a news conference.

By then, three civilian victims - two female and one male - had already been struck by gunfire, one of them fatally, the chief said.

Still a fourth individual whose condition and identity were unknown was left lying motionless - and presumably wounded during the exchange of gunfire - at the doorstep of the house, and might turn out to be the armed woman, Hunt said.

Officers keeping a safe distance on the perimeter of the property had yet to determine whether the person was a suspect or victim, the chief said.

Further complicating the situation, Hunt said, were reports of a possible second suspect, a man. Hunt said the motive behind the shooting remained unclear.

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