U.S.|Gunman Killed After Mass Shooting at San Diego Pool Party
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Gunman Killed After Mass Shooting at San Diego Pool Party
Police officers on Sunday in front of the La Jolla Crossroads complex in San Diego. A gunman who opened fire at a poolside party at the complex was shot and killed by the police.Credit...Gregory Bull/Associated Press
By Gerry Mullany and Jacey Fortin
A 49-year-old San Diego man, apparently distraught over a recent breakup, fired a gun while on a cellphone with his ex-girlfriend on Sunday, killing one person and injuring at least six at a poolside party before the police shot and killed him, the authorities said.
The attack took place around 6 p.m. as people gathered around the pool for a birthday party at the La Jolla Crossroads complex in University City, near the University of California's campus in the northwest part of the city.
At a news conference on Monday, Police Chief Shelley Zimmerman said the suspect, Peter Selis, who lived at the complex, was "distraught, depressed" when he opened fire.
"It is apparent that Selis wanted his girlfriend to listen in as he carried out his rampage," she said.
The police responded after receiving reports of a shooting, and an officer in a police helicopter spotted the gunman as he appeared to be reloading. Three officers on the ground arrived at the complex and confronted the gunman, and they shot him as he pointed his weapon at them, Chief Zimmerman said.
The shooting victims included four women, one of whom died, and three men, Chief Zimmerman said. A fourth man injured his arm while fleeing. Six of the seven shooting victims were black, and The San Diego Union-Tribune quoted witnesses as saying the gunman was white.
By late Monday morning, Chief Zimmerman said, some victims were still being treated in hospitals and two were listed in critical condition. "They are stable, and we believe that all are expected to survive," she said.
"There is zero information to indicate that race played a factor in this terrible and horrific crime," she added. "The victims were targeted for no other reason but their mere presence in the vicinity of the suspect."
The authorities noted that some of the witness testimonies contradicted one another, and said investigations into the shooting were ongoing.
"I'm still in shock that a shooting of this magnitude happened right here in San Diego," Barbara Bry, a member of the City Council, said on Monday. "And there are still some unanswered questions."
At a news conference on Sunday night, Mayor Kevin Faulconer described the shooting as "a horrific act of violence," and he praised the quick police response.
"I can't say enough about the emergency response and our first responders," he said, adding, "I also can't say enough about our officers who responded on site today whose professionalism, whose quick action, clearly avoided further bloodshed."
News reports said the gunman had been at the party before he opened fire. One resident, who identified himself only as John, told KFMB-TV that he saw the gunman "sitting, drinking a beer in one hand with a gun out in the other."
Kaela Wong, a student at the University of California, San Diego, told The Union-Tribune that she had heard the gunman threaten someone who tried to help one of the victims. "You can either leave, or you can stay here and die," Ms. Wong said she heard the gunman say.