A shooting spree that spanned 25 miles in Orange County, Calif., has left four people dead, including the gunman. Ali Syed, 20, reportedly shot and killed a young woman in her 20s at his parents’ home in Ladera Ranch at 4:45 a.m. and then fled from the scene.
Orange County Sheriff Department spokesman Jim Amormino said that Syed’s parents were home at the time of the shooting, but they fled when they heard the gunshots.
Less than 30 minutes later, Syed reportedly carjacked a Dodge pickup truck in Tusin, Calif., injuring a bystander at the scene before making his way to the intersection of Interstate 5 and state Route 55. There, police say, he shot at passing vehicles, causing another injury and damage to two cars.
Syed’s spree continued down Route 55 to Santa Ana, where he pulled the driver of a BMW out of the car and forced him to the curb, shooting him in front of several eyewitnesses. “He was basically executed,” Santa Ana police Cpl. Anthony Bertagna said, according to The Associated Press. “There were at least six witnesses.”
Another carjacking was soon reported outside of a Micro Center store in Tustin, where Syed allegedly killed his third victim and injured another. Officers eventually caught up to the young shooter, and followed him into Orange, Calif., where the violent streak would end. Syed left the small pickup truck he stole from outside the store and shot himself at a busy intersection.
The series of crimes took place in less than an hour, shocking the normally quiet South California county. Jason Glass, who lived across the street from Syed’s Ladera Ranch resident, said that he saw three children and a man escorted out of the house after the shooting.
“No noise ever came out of that house,” he told the Los Angeles Times. “No cops ever came to that house, nothing. This is really weird.”
