Terror in Northern California town as gunman goes on rampage, kills 4

RadioOnFire.com - A gunman’s deadly rampage through rural Rancho Tehama on Tuesday was stopped when police rammed his vehicle and exchanged shots in a fierce gun battle, authorities said.

“The suspect was actually shooting at the police vehicle, back at them, the officer rammed the vehicle, forced it off the road, an exchange of gunfire — resulting in the shooter’s death,” said Tehama County Assistant Sheriff Phil Johnston.

The shooting ended what authorities described as a 45-minute attack through Rancho Tehama, a quiet reserve about 120 miles northwest of downtown Sacramento.

The gunman at one point terrorized a local elementary school. Witnesses said he crashed through the school’s gates with his truck and opened fire, spraying walls and classrooms with bullets. Teachers and other adults on campus frantically got the students under desks.


Before the rampage was over, five people were dead, including the gunman, and at least 10 were wounded.

The violence began just before 8 a.m., when officers received reports of a “man down” on Bobcat Lane near Fawn Lane. Johnston said the gunman killed a man and a female neighbor he had an ongoing feud with. The gunman had been arrested for attacking the woman during a dispute in January, Johnston said.

He said the gunman’s dispute with neighbors may have sparked the violence.

“I think the motive of getting even with his neighbors and when it went that far — he just went on a rampage,” Johnston speculated.


Authorities described a chaotic scene in which the gunman in a stolen car appeared to pick targets at random in the rural Northern California county.

Johnston would not disclose the names of the gunman or victims, pending notification of next of kin. But in a phone interview Tuesday night with the Los Angeles Times, the sister of the gunman confirmed his identity as Kevin Janson Neal, 44.

Sheridan Orr, of North Carolina, said her brother had a history of mental illness and episodes of rage.

“There are certain people that do not need guns, and my brother was clearly one of them,” she said.

Orr said that her brother had long struggled with mental illness and that he would get paranoid and speak of government conspiracies. She said he was also known to have sudden episodes of unwarranted anger.