Saugus High School Shooting
Homicide Investigating Saugus High School Shooting
At 7:38 AM, Santa Clarita Station received a call about an Assault with a Deadly Weapon at 21900 Centurion Way in Santa Clarita at Saugus High School. Santa Clarita deputies arrived within 2 minutes and realized it was an Active Shooter situation.
Deputies conducted a rapid deployment onto the school’s premises. Upon their arrival, they discovered 6 students in the quad area suffering from gunshot wounds. The students were triaged and sent to local area hospitals. The suspect was identified as one of students found in the quad. He is identified as a 16 year old male Asian, whose birthday was today.
The weapon recovered on scene was a .45 caliber semi-automatic pistol, which no longer contained ammunition. The suspect is a resident of the 22900 block of Sycamore Creek Street Drive in Santa Clarita. That location was contained by Sheriff Deputies and a cursory search was conducted to identify any additional victims or suspects. A search warrant for the location was obtained by investigators to process the residence further evidence.
Homicide teams were deployed to several Santa Clarita Valley locations to process evidence and interview witnesses. Students who were possible witnesses to the incident are being interviewed by detectives from the LASD Homicide Bureau. We also have investigators working with the tech crews processing any videos we may receive from the surveillance system at the high school. We’re working and collaborating with the FBI to preserve and capture any cell phone video of this incident.
Detectives have reviewed the video at the scene, which shows the subject in the quad area remove a firearm from his backpack. He then shoots 5 people, and then shoots himself. The suspect is in critical condition at a local hospital. Unfortunately, a 16 year old female victim passed away at 9:23 AM and a male victim passed away at 11:31 AM. Three additional victims, one 15 year old female and one 14 year old female, and one male who is 14 years old are in stable condition at a local hospitals. This is preliminary information.
A social media account has been reported as possibly belonging to the suspect. The social media account stated, “Saugus have fun at school tomorrow.” However, the account has yet to be authenticated and it is unknown if this was posted by the suspect. Detectives have checked recent threats to the high school and have investigated two, but neither had a nexus to this incident. The investigation is on-going and anybody with information regarding the incident is encouraged to call the Los Angeles County Homicide Bureau at (323) 890-5500.