Doctors who treated two girls shot in the attack at a high school outside Los Angeles say both were in remarkably good spirits when they arrived at a hospital for treatment.
Dr. Boris Borazjani of Providence Holy Cross Hospital told reporters Friday that both girls were sitting up and “smiling and talking” while undergoing treatment after Thursday’s shooting at Saugus High School in in the city of Santa Clarita. The shooting killed two students.
Doctors said the two victims were doing well after treatment and should be released from the hospital in a day or two. One of the girls is 15 years old and the other is 14. Both are expected to make a full recovery.
Dr. Evan Valle added that “both girls were very stoic.”
Borazjani called gun violence like the shooting at the school “an unacceptable public health problem.”
The shooting happened around 7:30 a.m. Pacific time on Thursday in the suburban city about 40 miles north of Los Angeles. Off-duty officers whose children went to Saugus High School were the first on-scene, and provided first aid to the victims.
One off-duty officer had just dropped off a family member when he saw children running from the gunfire. He then turned around and arrived within seconds. When the two other off-duty personnel arrived, they began to provide first aid, potentially saving several students' lives.
"With a heavy heart, we're going to move forward with the investigation, figure out what went wrong," the sheriff said.
"I hate to have Saugus be added to the names of Columbine, Parkland, Sandy Hook, but it's a reality that affects us all throughout the nation, something we're going to have to deal with," he said. "... We've got to figure out what are we doing wrong and how can we stop this from happening in the future, so we'll figure that out over time."
The 16-year-old boy suspected of opening fire is in critical condition at another hospital. Law enforcement officials say he shot five students seemingly at random and then shot himself in the head. The incident happened on the gunman's 16th birthday.
The boy lived with his mother in a modest home on a leafy street in Santa Clarita. It’s a Los Angeles suburb of about 210,000 people known for good schools, safe streets and relatively affordable housing.
A motive for the shooting is still under investigation. Sherriff Alex Villanueva said in an earlier press conference that the boy's mother and girlfriend were being interviewed. The FBI have said there's no reason to believe the gunman was acting on behalf of a group or ideology.