Gunman kills eight in US salon massacre

A gunman opened fire in a busy hairdressing salon, killing eight people and critically wounding another in a quiet Southern California beach community.

The gunman, said by one salon worker to be the husband of a colleague, got into a car and drove away from Salon Meritage, in Seal Beach, about 30 miles from Los Angeles, after opening fire at about 1.30pm yesterday (9.30pm Irish Time).

He was stopped by officers about half a mile away and surrendered without incident, said police sergeant Steve Bowles. His name was not immediately released.

Police were working today to determine the motive for the killings.

“There may be something to the motive as to a relationship with somebody in the salon, that is our assumption,” Sgt Bowles said.

Seal Beach has seen just one other murder in the past four years.

Police responding to a report of shots fired found six people dead and three wounded at the salon, among a cluster of small businesses on Pacific Coast Highway. Two of the injured died later in hospital. The other person was in a critical condition today.

Sgt Bowles said bodies of the victims were scattered throughout the salon, along with two of the wounded. The other wounded person, a man, was found outside the building.

“We’re unsure at this point if he shot from the entrance and people, as they were shot, ran in seeking cover or seeking shelter, but we have fatalities throughout the salon,” Sgt Bowles told reporters outside the salon.

“From my observation, it did look like people were seeking shelter at the time.”

He said the salon was busy at the time, with every hair-dressing station being used.

He did not know what type of weapon was used or if the man used more than one.

Salon employee Lorainne Bruielle, who was not at work yesterday, told the Long Beach Press-Telegram the gunman was the husband of another employee.

Ms Bruielle said she talked to the husband of one of the employees involved, who said one worker locked herself in the salon’s facial room and was unharmed while another man locked himself in a bathroom, but was wounded.

The suspect was co-operative when officers, following a description of the gunmen, stopped him nearby. He told them he had multiple weapons in his car, Sgt Bowles said.

TV news video showed the man, in handcuffs, being placed in a patrol car and taken away about two-and-a-half hours after the shooting. A new white pick-up truck that was believed to be his was parked on the modest residential street with its doors open.

The killings stunned the normally quiet community of about 25,000 that boasts on its website that it has “retained its quaint, small-town atmosphere” since it was founded in 1915.

“All I heard was a siren and then after that one of my co-workers got a phone call from her nephew. He was outdoors when the suspect got into his truck and took off,” said Cindy Spinosa, 51, who works at a nearby business.

Relatives of victims in the salon shooting were being taken to a nearby spiritual centre.

“Obviously, a crime of this magnitude is something that Seal Beach is not familiar with,” Sgt Bowles said.

The quiet beachfront city is home to Leisure World, a gated senior citizen community of 9,000 people, as well as the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station military complex. Two-thirds of the city’s 13.23 square miles are occupied by the Seal Beach National Wildlife Refuge.