One person is dead and two more people were injured in a Roseville shooting early Thursday afternoon.
Where did the shooting happen?
The shooting took place in Roseville near Mahany Park on Pleasant Grove Boulevard.
There’s a softball field and dog park at Mahany.
The scene was near Woodcreek High School and the Roseville Aquatics Complex.
Classes were not in session at the high school because of spring break, but the campus was briefly locked down for staff inside the building.
Several businesses are located in the area of Thursday’s incident including the Roseville Utility Exploration Center, Mahany Fitness Center and Martha Riley Community Library.
Across the street is an apartment complex and a plaza with a Raley’s supermarket, Starbucks and banks.
When did the shooting occur?
The shooting happened at 12:34 p.m. Thursday, April 6.
Roseville police responded to a call from California Highway Patrol that one of its task force officers had been shot.
Police in armored vehicles were in the area shortly after, as well as multiple ambulances.
What do we know about the victims?
One person died and three people were injured, including the suspect.
When Roseville police and allied enforcement agencies arrived at Mahany Park on Thursday afternoon, the suspect was found armed with a gun. He fired it at officers as he fled the scene.
The suspect then took two adult victims hostage and allegedly shot them at the park. One died on the scene and the other was transported to the hospital with what looked like non-life-threatening injuries.
The identities and ages of the suspect and victims have not been released.
The suspect surrendered to officers and was taken into custody before 1:25 p.m. He were taken to the hospital for gunshot wounds.
The CHP officer shot by the suspect was treated for his injuries and is in stable condition.
Witness accounts of the shooting
Ben Mercado, 13, was with friends at the batting cages at Mahany Park when they heard gunfire. He said he saw officers arrive and yell “Police. Get down!” to a man in a black trench coat.
“And then, they screamed that he had a gun,” the eighth-grader said. “Then, me and my friends just dropped down.”
“Roughly 20, 25 shots” to start with, Mercado said. He believed what he heard was a shootout between the suspect and police. “We dropped down, got into a safe spot in the cage.”
Mercado said he and his friends crawled on the ground toward police, who had them run to a nearby parking lot. He said he heard roughly another 15 to 20 gunshots after leaving the batting cages for a total of about 40 shots.
Ben’s mom, Nicole Mercado, is a nurse and was at work when her friends started texting her, asking her whether her son was at Mahany Park.
“They hang out here all the time,” Mercado said about her son and his friends. “I was freaked out.”
Around 12:40 p.m., she received a text message from her son saying he and his friends were just in the middle of a shootout.