Search for motive in California murder-suicide

September 29, 2011|From The Medill News Service

Investigators searched for a motive in an apparent murder-suicide that left a man and woman dead and forced the lockdown of a Southern California high school. No students were injured.

The shooting occurred about 10:40 a.m. Wednesday after a school resource officer who works for the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department heard what he thought was a gunshot coming from the parking lot at Patriot High School in Jurupa, said sheriff’s spokeswoman Courtney Donowho. The school was immediately placed on a lockdown as sheriff’s investigators searched the campus.

The officer found a man and woman in the parking lot with gunshot wounds. The man was pronounced dead at the scene. The woman, a bilingual education volunteer at the school, was pronounced dead at a hospital, the sheriff’s department said. Their identities have been withheld pending notification of relatives.

No students were unaccounted for and they were released in three phases throughout the afternoon.

Most high schools in Riverside County have deputies who act as school resource officers, Donowho said.

“They are there for exactly these types of incidents,’’ she said. “Our primary concern is student safety.’’

Jurupa is about 50 miles east of downtown Los Angeles.