SAN BERNARDINO, California (CNN) — Two suspects in the mass shooting that killed 14 people at a center for people with developmental disabilities were fatally shot in a gun battle with police hours after the initial incident.
The suspects — a man and a woman — had assault-style rifles and handguns, San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan told reporters. They were dressed in what he called assault style clothing.
A third person was detained close to the scene of the shootout, but it is possible he is not connected to the shootings, Burquan said.
Earlier police said they were hunting as many as three suspects, who had fled in a black SUV.
The residential area not far from where the shooting at the Inland Regional Center occurred was flooded with law enforcement following a chase that ended with police and the suspects exchanging gunfire.
Meanwhile, authorities finished clearing the three buildings on the property and examining the conference center, where the initial shootings occurred.
[Latest developments, posted at 8:53 p.m. ET]
• Authorities have had contact with as many as two suspects from Wednesday’s shooting, told reporters. At least one suspect was hit in a shootout. It’s unclear whether that suspect was killed, she said. A third suspect could still be on the loose, she said. Cervantes also said that a police officer was hurt but the injury is not life-threatening.
• CNN affiliate KABC showed images of the other shooting scene. The video showed a black SUV and a person on the ground.
• Five people were transported to Loma Linda University Medical Center, hospital spokeswoman Briana Pastorino said. Two of the patients were in critical condition, two were in fair condition and one person was being assessed. Arrowhead Regional Medical Center said one patient had been discharged and five were still getting treatment.
• Marcos Aguilera received a text from his wife who works at the Inland Regional Center.
“She heard the shots and crying,” he said. The situation became confusing when the fire alarm went off. “Everyone was confused,” he said, relating his wife’s account. A SWAT team eventually rescued his wife and two other co-workers. “When she exited the building, she said there were multiple bodies on the floor,” Aguilera told CNN.
• The suspects were armed with long guns, Burguan told reporters. “These were people that came prepared. … They were armed with long guns, not hand guns,” he told reporters. Most of the victims were “centrally located in one area of the facility,” Burguan said. Police didn’t exchange gunfire with the shooters, he added.
• “At this point, I know one of your questions is going to be ‘Is this a terrorist incident?’ I will tell you right now we do not know if this is a terrorist incident,” David Bowdich, an assistant director for Los Angeles FBI’s office told reporters.
• The shootings were in the conference center at the Inland Regional Center, the center’s executive director, Lavinia Johnson, told CNN. She believes the county’s Department of Public Health was having a holiday party there.
Johnson said the fire alarm went off in her building, and people began to evacuate but then the order came to stay in place. Later police came and took people out of their offices.
• The three suspects are believed to be armed with AK-47-type weapons, a local law enforcement official told CNN.
• President Barack Obama restated his call for more gun control reforms in the wake of the mass shooting. Speaking to CBS News, Obama said Congress should act in a bipartisan manner to close loopholes, including one that allows people on the TSA no-fly list to legally purchase firearms
• The bomb squad found a suspicious package on the second floor of a building and determined it is “not normal,” a law enforcement source told CNN. They are going to handle it with a robot, the source added.
• A woman who works at a building where the shootings occurred texted her father: “Shooting at my work. People shot.” The father told CNN affiliate KABC his daughter told him 10 to 20 people were shot.
• The FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were responding, agency representatives said.
• Wednesday’s shooting occurred at the Inland Regional Center, a facility for people with developmental disabilities. It is unclear how many people were at the facility at the time of the shooting.
The center’s Facebook page says it employs nearly 670 people at its facilities in San Bernardino and Riverside counties, providing service to more than 30,200 people.
It aims to “work on a personal, one-on-one basis with people with developmental disabilities to make their lives better as they define it.” No information is yet available on how many people were at the facility at the time of the shooting.
• San Bernardino is a city of just over 200,000 people 60 miles east of Los Angeles. It’s the 17th largest city in California, and the mayor is R. Carey Davis.
