A gunman shot a woman to death in a home early Tuesday in Tustin California, and then went on a spree of carjackings and random shootings throughout Orange County, leaving two more dead.
Three others were also wounded before he killed himself, police authorities said.
According to the Huffington Post, officials described the gunman as in his 20s, but have not zeroed in on a motive.
The shootings began at 4:45 a.m. Deputies responded to the call and found a woman in a house in Ladera Ranch, about 55 miles south of Los Angeles, sprawled out, with multiple gun shots to her body.
In the next hour, several more shootings occurred. One incident involved a carjacking at Interstate 5 and Red Hill Avenue. Police said the victim was uninjured, but a bystander was hit by gunfire and taken to a nearby hospital.
Reports also indicated that the gunman opened fire at other vehicles on a freeway. City police Cpl. Anthony Bertangna described a later incident in which the suspect carjacked a man in a BMW.
"He gets out of the vehicle, confronts our victim who is in his BMW, he orders him out of the vehicle, walks him to the side of the curb and executes our victim," Bertagna said.
The shooter then drove to a Tustin business called Micro Center. There a utility-type pickup was carjacked, one person was killed, and another wounded, Garaven said. Officers located the suspect and followed him into the city of Orange. When officers tried to stop him, he got out of the vehicle and killed himself, Garaven said. A shotgun was recovered at the scene.
The mayhem in southern California occurred just one week after a massive manhunt for Christopher Dorner, the former Los Angeles policeman who was wanted in a series of shootings targeting officers and their families. The manhunt ended in an explosive standoff near Big Bear Lake, just north of Los Angeles.
Authorities did not have details about all the victims. Tustin is about 35 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles.
