A 56-year-old career criminal who shot two kindergarten students attending Feather River Adventist School in Oroville, California, on Wednesday was reportedly religiously motivated.
Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea revealed this week that Roman Mendez, 6, and Elias Wolford, 5, were two children critically wounded by the shooter, Glenn Litton.
After shooting the kids, Litton turned the gun on himself.
Leading up to the shooting the suspect scheduled a meeting with the principal of Feather River School, pretending to inquire about enrolling his grandson at the school.
Litton sat down for the meeting with the principal and started shooting children on the playground immediately after exiting his office.
Investigators found writings by Litton suggesting he carried out the attack as some form of vengeance for the Palestinian and Yemeni children being killed by Israel.
One message from Litton read, “Countermeasure involving child executions has now been imposed at the Seventh Day Adventist school in California, United States by The International Alliance. I, Lieutenant Glenn Litton of the Alliance carried out countermeasure in necessitated response to America’s involvement with Genocide and Oppression of Palestinians along with attacks towards Yemen.”
The suspect was homeless and had a lengthy criminal history including identity theft, fraud, and forgery charges.
Litton was in and out of the California State Prison system from the 1990s up to November of this year.
In 2002, police learned the future school shooter reportedly gathered “disguises, a bulletproof vest, shackles and walkie-talkies, and had made internet searches that officials said indicated he was planning some kind of mass-violence attack using guns and explosives.”
That incident resulted in Litton serving three years in prison.
Regarding the injured kids, Elias was shot twice, once through the chest and once in the abdomen.
He was airlifted to a hospital, underwent emergency surgery to stop the bleeding, and remains in critical but stable condition.
Roman also underwent successful surgeries, but “still has more to come and a challenging recovery ahead.”
“We are grateful for the amazing medical team working tirelessly to help him heal,” said his sister Vanessa.
Sheriff Honea commented on the tragedy, saying, “They have a very long road ahead of them. It’s very likely that they are going to have to have a number of surgeries. The fact that they are still with us is a miracle itself.”