Victims in Butte County Library shooting in Chico are identified; police responded within 2 minutes
So, um, It’s just, it’s just super sad and So, I have some information I’m gonna release today. Uh, once I’m done, uh, I’ll announce the next speaker, and, um, we have several people today. Uh, I’ll just go ahead and recognize them. So with us today is, uh, Misty Wright. She’s the Butte County director of libraries. Michael Ramsey, Butte County District Attorney, Corey Honey, Butte County Sheriff, uh, Eric Grant, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of California, and Sid Patel, who’s the Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Sacramento Field Office. So you’ll hear from each of these individuals today. Can I ask that you hold your questions until the end. Uh, I promise we’ll get to your questions and I will answer them to the best of my ability. And if I can’t answer them, uh, one of the speakers, who will speak today will most likely be able to answer it for you. So yesterday we had an active shooter incident at the Butte County Library Chico branch. Um, the initial 911 call came in at, now I want you to take specific note of the timeline here. The initial 911 call came in at 5:12 and 58 seconds. The call, um, as it was open in our dispatch center, um, the dispatchers could overhear what they described as screaming and gunshots. Several officers were dispatched to *** potential, uh, active shooter incident there based off what our dispatchers were hearing. Our first officer went on scene at 5:14 and 44 seconds, so our response time was less than 2 minutes. At 5:16 and 53 seconds we had the suspect in custody. So from time of initial 911 call to and in custody with our suspect was less than 4 minutes. That’s absolutely amazing, and I want to acknowledge that. Um, I Absolutely believe that this is what mitigated further loss of life to members from our community. And uh I want to recognize every one of those first responders. That responded and handled the situation. So we had multiple 911 calls reporting gunshots and screaming from within the Butte County library in Chico. The suspect exited the east side of the library where *** perimeter had already been established and was taken into custody without incident. There was no use of force by any of our officers in dealing with the suspect. We have 2 adult victims, and I want to acknowledge their names. The first is 74-year-old Robert Johnson. The 2nd Is 46 year old Jacob Hull. We have one female juvenile who we will not name who was transported to the hospital with *** non-life threatening injury. It was fairly minor from what I understand, broken glass that kind of cut her on the side. She’s since been released from the hospital and is with her family. All 3 were patrons of the library. They were not employees of any sort. Our suspect is 18 year old Bradley Scott Sayer of Chico. He has no known connections to any of the victims in the library. And based on information revealed during the interviews, Our detectives believe the suspect was influenced by the Columbine High School shooting. Uh, back in 1999. Uh, in the, the scene itself, uh, it’s described as in the general area of the library, uh, at the initial, uh, entrance point and then further into, uh, the backside of the library. We feel that approximately 8 total rounds were fired. 2 additional firearms were located in the suspect’s vehicle, which was parked right outside the library. One victim Uh, who was struck at the library entrance and one in the later part of the building. Um, We believe that this was an isolated incident and there’s no known further threat to our community. And we’re still trying to determine the source of the firearms, but we do believe those were connected to Mr. Sayer. that we do not focus or want to focus on the individual who is responsible for this violence. He does not deserve to be recognized at any point, so I will not say his name any further. In moments like these, our focus remains on those who were harmed. And the community members whose lives have been changed forever. Today we recognize those victims and honor the bravery of those who responded and remain committed to supporting our community through the healing process. I could not be more proud of the actions displayed by our officers. Their rapid response, sound judgment, and unwavering courage brought *** dangerous situation under control and prevented further violence. While our thoughts remain with the victims and their families, we are grateful for the professionalism and heroism displayed by everyone who responded. We would like to extend our gratitude to our allied agencies, fire, EMS, and public safety partners who immediately responded, helped coordinate and support were critical in ensuring the safety of our community during the incident. Um, of those agencies that I want to, uh, publicly acknowledge is the Butte County Sheriff’s Office. Of the Butte College Police Department. The California State University Chico Police Department. California state parks. Cal Fire Law Enforcement Branch. The Butte County District Attorney’s office. The FBI And the Department of Corrections. It’s partnerships like these that we rely on. This is *** large community and we can’t be everywhere at once, so we have to rely on each other and help each other be successful, and that’s what we did yesterday. We helped each other. Um, at this point, I’m going to turn it over to the Butte County director of libraries, and that is Misty Wright. So Misty, if you could come forward. On behalf of everyone at Butte County, I want to thank law enforcement for their swift and selfless actions. Every day you courageously run towards danger, and it is without *** doubt that yesterday your courage saved lives. *** library should be *** place of joy. It should be *** place where people of all ages come to learn, connect, laugh, and discover something new. Most importantly, it should be *** place where people feel safe, and yesterday that sense of safety was shattered. We grieve for the innocent victims and their loved ones, for those who witnessed something no one should ever have to witness, and we grieve for our staff, our patrons, and our entire community. We acknowledge the fear, sadness, and heartbreak that so many are carrying today. In the midst of this tragedy, we also witnessed remarkable bravery from our library staff who acted on their preparation and training to help patrons and one another. The people who work in our libraries choose this profession because they care deeply about others. They believe in service, they believe in community. They believe that every person who walks through our doors matters. And yesterday our staff embodied those values. Their actions reflect the very best of public service and the very heart of what libraries represent. For that, I am profoundly grateful. The road ahead will not be easy, but I believe in the strength of this community because I’ve seen it firsthand, and I believe that one day families will walk through these doors again. Children will gather for story time, students will find *** quiet place to study, and friends will meet and neighbors will connect. And when that day comes, the library will once again be what it has always been at its heart, *** place of learning, *** place of connection, and *** place of hope. As far as library operations, the Chico branch was previously scheduled to close in August temporarily for renovations. It will reopen once renovations are complete. More information on where residents may access their library services in Chico will be provided soon. While we are not aware of any threat to other library branches, the county’s top priority is to ensure that residents and staff feel safe in the library. Therefore, as *** precaution, we are arranging to have security personnel at each location. We will notify the public once the other locations are ready to open. Thank you, and I’m gonna call up, um, Mike Ramsey, district attorney. I’m switching it up. It’s OK. I’m not Mike Ramsey, uh, the district attorney of Butte County. I am Corey Honey, the sheriff and coroner of Butte County. Uh, as you know from Chief Aldridge’s comments, uh, yesterday, uh, there was an active shooter incident at the Chico branch of the Butte County Library. The Butte County Sheriff’s Office dispatch was monitoring the Chico Police Department dispatch, and as soon as our dispatchers heard that call being put out to police officers for the city of Chico, we immediately dispatched all available deputy sheriffs from throughout Butte County to respond to the scene to assist the Chico Police Department in any way that we possibly could. You’re also aware of the fact that shortly after that scene was secured, and it was secured in *** remarkably fast time frame, two individuals were located who had sustained apparent gunshot wounds. Uh, one of those, uh, victims was pronounced dead at the scene, and as Chief Aldridge mentioned, uh, his name is Robert Johnson. He is 74 years of age and he was from Orland, California. There was *** second victim of *** gunshot wound who sustained injury, was transported to Inlow Hospital. They did their best to provide life saving treatment. Regrettably, he succumbed to his injuries. That victim has been identified by my office as Jacob Hull, age 46, also of Chico. And I’ll note that the young girl that was sustained minor injuries was with Mr. Hull. My office will be coordinating autopsies for both of the victims in this case. We anticipate that the autopsies will take place at our morgue facility in Oroville tomorrow. Our preliminary examination indicates that the gunshots suffered by both victims are consistent with the kinds of wounds caused by *** shotgun. As you also know from Chief Aldridge, the suspect in this case was quickly and swiftly taken into custody by officers from the Chico Police Department, after which he was later booked into the Butte County Jail where he is being held in isolation. Of course my office will continue to work cooperatively with all of our partners in this endeavor and do whatever we can to assist. I want to say there’s been so much tragedy visited upon the residents of Butte County, and this incident is of course no exception to that. My heart goes out to all the members of our community. I want to express my very sincere condolences to the families and friends of the victims, and I also want to acknowledge the heroic efforts of our library staff who helped patrons of the library get into *** safe place. I’m confident that they helped save lives, and again, uh, I want to recognize all of the law enforcement officers who responded to that situation without hesitation. And now I would like to introduce uh our district attorney Mike Ramsey. Thank you Sheriff, and I’ll echo much of what the sheriff has indicated, particularly with reference to the fact that we had law enforcement from all over the county coming in on an active shooter situation. But after the situation was stabilized, we also had *** number of those officers stay and do the important work of investigating. This particular crime, talking to multiple witnesses, not only library patrons, but the entire neighborhood, looking and gathering such things as ring cameras, the flock cameras, such that we know and can make *** kind of pinpoint of where the suspect was, what he did, where he came in. As the sheriff has indicated, the weapon that was used was *** shotgun. The shotgun was recovered from the floor of the library. The suspect will appear in Butte County Superior Court Thursday afternoon at 3 p.m., the standard arraignment time, uh, in our Superior Court, where I expect him to be charged with two. Counts of first degree murder. We are still examining all of the witnesses reports as to various attempted murder charges, but right now we know that there are charges of the two deceased that unfortunately lost their lives in this matter. So I told my board of supervisors this morning, of course the public wants to know the why question. And the why question that has been alluded to by Chief Aldridge is that the suspect was *** fan and *** fan for some time of social media involving Columbine-type shootings, the school shootings, and had unfortunately made *** deep dive into that social media community and obviously lost his way. In that and decided yesterday to act and copycat that particular unfortunate part of our society right now, but he will be charged. He will be, as I understand, may already have an attorney. I do not know who that is, and he will appear in our court at 3 p.m. on Thursday. And now, I’d like to introduce uh the uh uh Eric Grant, who’s the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of California. Thank you, District Attorney Ramsey. Uh, my title is *** long version of, uh, the chief federal prosecutor for the Central Valley, and I’m here in *** supporting role. You’re in very good hands with the Chico Police Department, the Butte County Sheriff’s Office, and the Butte County District Attorney’s Office. And on *** personal note, I wanna say I have *** daughter and son-in-law who live here in Chico. And so I’m personally grateful for the skill and bravery of the Chico Police Department in keeping the citizens of this city and this county safe. Uh, one of my important roles is to support our partners at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and, uh, my, the lawyers in my office are. Uh, doing that as we do every day. And so, uh, I would like to now turn it over to Sid Patel, the Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Sacramento Field Office. Sid. My name is Sid Patel. I’m the Special Agent in Charge for the Sacramento FBI field office. Yesterday’s violent attack was horrific. We’ve got *** tight community here in Chico. And not one person should feel unsafe going to *** public venue like *** library. To our community and especially those who are grieving the loss of *** loved one. We stand with you. And we’ll support you any way we can. The full force of the FBI. is assisting this investigation. We mobilize our agents. Intelligence analysts, our professional staff from our Sacramento FBI main office, but also our satellite office we call it the Chico resident Agency, RA. We have agents out here as well and intel analysts. We’re partnering partnering closely with our local, state and federal partners. Many of that have been mentioned, but to include the Chico Police Department, you’ve got *** great relationship with Chico PD. Is there *** lead investigation arm of this, uh, particular case? The Butte County Sheriff’s Office. The Butte County DA’s office. Uh, ATF, one of our federal agencies, alcohol tobacco farms. HSI And the Utor’s office There are numerous others, the fire departments, the staff at the library, everyone that was part of this to try to secure as many safe people as we could during this incident. Within the first two minutes of the first shot, Chico police officers were on scene. So let me go through *** chronology of *** timeline of some of the incidents as we received it as the FBI. At 5:12 p.m., Chico Police Department received *** report of shots fired. Within 1 minute and 40 seconds, they responded. Within 4 minutes, the individual was in custody. These are unreal times. I’ll tell you the average time for an active shooter scenario is about 3 to 7 minutes, so 1 minute 40 seconds is extremely fast. In addition to that, uh, Columbine, that was 30 to 60 minutes. So I mean you guys are in great hands with Chico Police Department. They did *** fantastic job on this response. At 5:43 p.m., uh, we learned about the incident. Uh, we start gathering our information towards it. I communicated with the Chico Police Chief, uh, Billy Aldridge, uh, who requested FBI assistance. At about 6:18 p.m. or so, these are approximations, we had FBI agents on the ground here. They came from our Chico satellite office and then also from our Sacramento offices. At around 7:50 p.m. our evidence response team that came in to help with the crime scene arrived and was on the scene. And I’ll tell you around 9:30 p.m. and it’s *** good several hours after that, um, the subject was interviewed by Chico Police Department detectives. So let me give you *** little background on this individual here, right? Let’s see what I’ve got here. So let me tell you *** little bit about the shooter here. The subject, Bradley Scott Sayer, as you know, white male, 18 years old, *** graduate from Chico High School, he graduated on June 5th. He lived between two locations with his mom and with his dad. We believe Sayer was looking for *** confined, populated location to attack, which he did. He did *** walkthrough without *** weapon first, right, left his car, went inside the library, did *** walkthrough, then he came back to his vehicle, opened his trunk, and took out his shotgun. As he was entering in. There’s an adult that he shot at that’s unfortunately deceased now. Shot him in the leg, saw that he was disabled from the shot, and then shot him in the, shot him in the head. Which was fatal. He also injured *** young child, as was noted earlier. Young child is I would imagine traumatized, but is healing. And then he entered. Multiple shots were fired. At one point, there was another victim that he shot in the head and killed. These are ruthless acts, true evil in my eyes. He wore *** white t-shirt. And *** white t-shirt he wrote with black handwritten marker Natural Selection. Now this natural selection, we believe, is in reference to Eric Harris, who is *** Columbine shooter, who also had *** white t-shirt where his says, natural selection. So let me talk to you about some of the ongoing efforts that we have, right? We have all the digital evidence, we’re continue to obtain more uh from the subject’s home, uh, looking at other. Devices and items that we’ve seized and our computer analysis response team is going through those. I really want to thank our local partners here. They’ve done an amazing job. Chief Aldridge, his team, the sheriff, DA’s office, our federal partners. It’s amazing to see the, the type of response that they had on this. You’re very fortunate to have *** well-trained police department like this. You truly are. As we continue this investigation and to assist Chico Police Department, we’re still seeking for more answers. So if you have information about the incident, call Chico PD or you can feel free to call us at 1-800-CAL-FBI or go to tips.fbi.gov and report any information that you have. We know this is *** very strong community. Please be vigil, be vigilant, share information, call us, call your local PD if you see anything that’s suspicious. Don’t let this tragedy define what makes Chico so great. With you, thank you for your time. I’m gonna pass it back to the chief. Thank you to everyone that spoke today. I appreciate your help. The community knows that. We have an amazing team of law enforcement agencies, fire service, EMS in this community, and Um, you know, I didn’t, I failed to recognize, uh, the Chico Fire Department. They responded along with us, uh, to this incident. We trained together for these types of incidents and then our local ambulance crews also, so I appreciate your assistance. Thank you. Um, so at this point I think we will open it up to questions and, uh, out of respect I’m going to allow our local news agencies to ask the first questions. So, uh, do we have action news here? I’m gonna have you ask your first question. Thank you. Um, so are you able to say, uh, where in the library that the shooting happened, uh, towards the back, towards the front, outside, if you could just get the details on. Sure, uh, well, there’s the main entrance from the parking lot, uh, right at the front doors there. And then as you enter into the um library just toward the back of it, would would have been the second incident. Yeah. Um, Chief Aldridge, when law enforcement says that they did their intel and found out that uh the suspect was inspired by the Columbine shooting, um, can you elaborate maybe on specifically, uh, what law enforcement did to study on that? Uh, did they search his social media? What did they find in regards to stuff that he was in possession maybe in the vehicle or just in general searching on social media on his phone, things of that nature? Yeah, I think the first clue was his shirt with the language that was on there and then some information from the interviews, but the further we investigate into this, we find further clues that led us to believe that was the case. So simply like I said, the shirt that that Sid was talking about was *** clue, and then some of the stuff that he told us during the interview process. Do you know if he said anything when he entered the library to any individuals in the library? I don’t know that. Yeah. Hi, uh, Claudia Brancar with North State Public Radio. Uh, what security services were in place at the library during the shooting? Uh, I will turn that over to, um, Misty Wright to answer. I, I, I’m not familiar with it, so have Misty come up. Um, so currently at the Chico library, um, our only security services were *** mobile patrol. Um, we have never seen *** need to have *** standing guard at the Chico library, um, so, and it’s, um, armed guard security that we work with. OK, sorry, can you elaborate what you mean by the patrol? Like what the, the mobile patrol, they, they come by the library periodically, like check through the parking lot and come to the building, just make sure everything’s OK, and then wander around. OK, got you. And are they armed? I’m actually unsure of that. I would imagine so, but I’m unclear. OK. Bye. Um, were there any other injuries that were treated on scene outside of the ones that were mentioned? Um, I’m not, I’m not sure that we had further injuries, no, just the, the three that we’ve talked about. Oh, I’ll let you ask *** question. I’m gonna jump to the next person. Um, well the, do you know if the person gonna be charged federally? I’m sorry, will he be charged federally? Yes, because the federal government is involved. Are they thinking about charging him potentially for this as well? Well, there has to be certain criteria that’s met for that, and right now we’re charging him locally in Butte County. Under state crimes, not federal crimes. OK, thank you. Yeah, Roxanne with ABC 10. We spoke to *** few different people today that were there and witnessed this firsthand happening and also friends of one of the victims, and they tell us that one of the victims actually was trying to help, um, save some, you know, the little girl that was injured, and another person told us that they were also, um, trying to take people into *** back room. Is it because of these brave people and quick actions that um that there were not any more victims than what there were? Well, I can’t corroborate that story in terms of shielding the small child or anything like that, but I do know that you know the staff did help to move people to safety as quick as they could, so I would assume that that helped to mitigate further loss of life or injury, um, you know, along with the quick response of law enforcement. Yeah. Do you have an estimate as to how many people were in the library when it occurred? Uh, I can have Misty come back up and answer that. Maybe. I don’t know if she knows. No, I don’t know. No, um, hold on, not, no estimate. to each of the individuals who are in the library receiving their own attempted murder charge is he receiving attempted murder charge for everybody who’s in the library? No, not at this point. And as the DA alluded to, we’re going to be doing some further investigation on that, talking to the witnesses in depth to get more information to see if there’s elements of the crime that are met for the district attorney to follow up with further charges. And I’m gonna come back to you. Uh, thank you. Uh, do you know how he was able to get *** gun? Was it registered to him or his family? I know that you just mentioned there’s *** few different firearms that were found. Yeah, uh, I mean there were the guns that he has were registered, um, in the family name. Uh, they weren’t to someone else. They were within the family. Do you know approximately when the suspect arrived at the library to park his car in front of the library, but do you know approximately when he actually arrived at the library? Um, I don’t think we have that time arrival time right now. We just have our response time from when we received the first call. That was that 5:12 time. And how many 911 calls did you receive? We don’t have that. We have it, uh, just several. I don’t know the exact number. One more question, um, through you guys’ investigation, has he had any remorse for any of this? I’m not going to speak to how the interview went at this point because it’s so early on in the investigation. Chief, I know you’ve mentioned that this is an isolated incident, um, with summer hitting its peak, uh, right now in the community, obviously the city of Chico and Butte County for that matter, very tight knit communities. There’s *** lot of events going on. Uh, what would you say to *** lot of people on social media right now and amongst the community who might be *** little nervous of going to these events and, uh, maybe bringing their family, their kids out there? What would you say to those individuals? I, I would say that I understand their fear, and, you know, when you have something like this happen in the community, it makes you second guess, you know, the things you’re gonna do with your family, and, um, and I appreciate that. This police department along with our partners that we have in this area, create an environment where we try to make it as safe as we can to both live, work and recreate and so I would say I acknowledge your fear. I understand it, but I understand we’re here. 24/7 providing excellent service to this community and as you can tell our response times are very quick and so we’re going to be available if something happens. Were his parents, have they been questioned yet, and did they share any information that they may have known of something that was going on? I’m gonna, I’m gonna call up Lieutenant Ben Love, who’s our investigations lieutenant. Good afternoon. They have been interviewed, uh, but we’re not gonna speak to what their statements were at this time. Thank you. Good job. Yeah, yeah, um, I’m wondering if this event has Leaders, county people, folks and stuff considering like, do we need to have security at our libraries. I, I’m not gonna speak to that either. Um, I’ll let Misty maybe answer that question. Um, yeah, as I said in my statement, we are, um, looking to increase security at all of our branches, um. I think as uh the chief said, this is an isolated incident, but as an abundance of caution, um, we are gonna be doing that for now. I spoke with one person at the library today who was trying to get his side because he left some of his belongings there. For the people who did have to leave some of their belongings behind, how can they go about getting that back and what is the expected timeline? Yeah, great question. Now, we were talking about that this morning. Um, we are gonna have someone assigned to that if we don’t have it already. Uh, we’ve already discussed how that’s gonna, um, go down if people. Uh, are missing items from this incident, uh, that were left behind and just tell them to get *** hold of us at the Chief of Police department. Um, do you have something to say about that. District attorney’s office has *** victim assistance program has had for years, and they’re working with Chico Police Department to get those belongings back to the people that belong to. Their experience at that in mass crime type issues. OK OK, at this time that will conclude our media briefing. Thank you again to all of our partners who joined us. If you have.
Victims in Butte County Library shooting in Chico are identified; police responded within 2 minutes
Updated: 2:50 PM PDT Jun 23, 2026
The two people killed in a shooting at the Butte County Library in Chico on Monday were identified, as officials released new details about the shooting response and the alleged 18-year-old attacker’s motivations.The Chico police chief on Tuesday identified Robert Johnson, 74, and Jacob Hull, 46, as having died in the shooting. Johnson was from Orland, California, and Hull was from Chico. A girl who was with Hull was injured by broken glass during the shooting and has been released from the hospital. Chico Police Chief Billy Aldridge broke down the response time to the second, saying the first 911 call came in at 5:12 p.m. Screaming and gunshots could be overheard by dispatchers. Officers arrived at the scene at 5:14 p.m. for a response time of less than two minutes, Aldridge said. Arriving officers entered the building through the front doors while the suspect exited from the back, where a perimeter had already been established, police said. The alleged gunman was then taken into custody at 5:16 p.m.”That’s absolutely amazing,” Aldridge said. Police identified the alleged shooter as Bradley Scott Sayer, of Chico. He was booked into the Butte County Jail and is expected to face two first-degree murder charges, Butte County District Attorney Michael Ramsey said on Tuesday. He added that attempted murder charges are also being examined. Authorities believe the shooter acted alone. Police said there is no indication that Sayer knew any of the three people hit by gunfire, but they also stated that Sayer’s “motivation appears to be founded in a desire to commit a Columbine High School massacre type of shooting.”Sid Patel, the FBI special agent in charge for the Sacramento field office, said that Sayer had recently graduated from Chico High School and split his time living between his mother and father’s homes. He had done a walkthrough at the library before the shooting and later retrieved a shotgun from his vehicle that was used in the attack. He was wearing a white T-shirt with writing from a marker on it that read “natural selection,” in a reference to one of the Columbine shooters, Patel said. The shotgun was later recovered from the library, and two additional firearms were found in his vehicle, the Chico police chief said. Officials also said Tuesday that one of the victims who died was shot at the entrance to the library and the other in another part of the building. Eight total rounds were fired. There was no security at the library at the time of the shooting. Security personnel are now being brought to each location in the Butte County library system, an official said. The shooting remains under investigation. Anyone with information related to the shooting is asked to contact the Chico Police Department at 530-897-4911. See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel
The two people killed in a shooting at the Butte County Library in Chico on Monday were identified, as officials released new details about the shooting response and the alleged 18-year-old attacker’s motivations.
The Chico police chief on Tuesday identified Robert Johnson, 74, and Jacob Hull, 46, as having died in the shooting. Johnson was from Orland, California, and Hull was from Chico.
A girl who was with Hull was injured by broken glass during the shooting and has been released from the hospital.
Chico Police Chief Billy Aldridge broke down the response time to the second, saying the first 911 call came in at 5:12 p.m. Screaming and gunshots could be overheard by dispatchers.
Officers arrived at the scene at 5:14 p.m. for a response time of less than two minutes, Aldridge said.
Arriving officers entered the building through the front doors while the suspect exited from the back, where a perimeter had already been established, police said.
The alleged gunman was then taken into custody at 5:16 p.m.
“That’s absolutely amazing,” Aldridge said.
Police identified the alleged shooter as Bradley Scott Sayer, of Chico. He was booked into the Butte County Jail and is expected to face two first-degree murder charges, Butte County District Attorney Michael Ramsey said on Tuesday. He added that attempted murder charges are also being examined.
Authorities believe the shooter acted alone. Police said there is no indication that Sayer knew any of the three people hit by gunfire, but they also stated that Sayer’s “motivation appears to be founded in a desire to commit a Columbine High School massacre type of shooting.”
Sid Patel, the FBI special agent in charge for the Sacramento field office, said that Sayer had recently graduated from Chico High School and split his time living between his mother and father’s homes.
He had done a walkthrough at the library before the shooting and later retrieved a shotgun from his vehicle that was used in the attack. He was wearing a white T-shirt with writing from a marker on it that read “natural selection,” in a reference to one of the Columbine shooters, Patel said.
The shotgun was later recovered from the library, and two additional firearms were found in his vehicle, the Chico police chief said.
Officials also said Tuesday that one of the victims who died was shot at the entrance to the library and the other in another part of the building.
Eight total rounds were fired.
There was no security at the library at the time of the shooting. Security personnel are now being brought to each location in the Butte County library system, an official said.
The shooting remains under investigation.
Anyone with information related to the shooting is asked to contact the Chico Police Department at 530-897-4911.
See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel