Police have identified the suspect who is believed to have opened fire in a Southern California hair salon leaving eight people dead and another wounded.
Seal Beach police identified the suspect as Scott Evans De Kraai, who is believed to have entered the Salon Meritage in Seal Beach, Calif. Wednesday and opened fire in a massacre that killed six people immediately. Once authorities arrived all six victims were declared dead on the scene.
The three people who were injured in the incident were hospitalized and are considered in critical condition. Two of those victims died, police later said.
The names of the deceased are being withheld until family members are notified, but police said that of the six that were shot inside the salon, five were females and one was male, and of the two who died in the hospital, one was female and the other was male. The victim that is currently hospitalized is female.
It was not immediately clear if the victims were customers or employees.
Authorities responded to the shooting at the salon in the coastal town about 30 miles south of Los Angeles. The salon is in the 500 block of Pacific Coast Highway.
“Our officers arrived on scene and found multiple gunshot victims inside of the salon,” Sgt. Steve Bowles of the Seal Beach Police Department told reporters this evening. “Other responding officers who arrived saw … what they thought was a suspect vehicle leaving the area and made a car stop on that vehicle, and took that suspect into custody.”
Bowles said the salon was busy at the time of the shooting, with every station occupied. He said it appeared that the victims were seeking shelter when they were shot. Some of the people inside were able to escape unharmed.
The 911 call came from outside of the business.
A suspect who police believe was the only shooter was taken into custody a half-mile from the crime scene. Police said the white male was driving through a residential area in the direction of Huntington Beach, Calif.
Authorities have not yet released the suspect’s name, but said they found multiple weapons in the suspect’s car. KABC reported that he appeared to be wearing body armor.
Police said the suspect was cooperative at the time of the arrest and was taken to the Seal County Police Department.
Police do not know the man’s relationship to the salon or the shooting victims. A motive for the shooting has not yet been determined.
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