A man with a semi-automatic rifle killed at least four people and wounded several others in Santa Monica before police shot him dead in a college library on Friday night.
The violence began when the gunman, dressed in black and wearing what appeared to be body armour, opened fire on a house where two bodies were found.
Officials in Santa Monica, California said the killings began as a domestic violence incident and the victims in the home were the gunman's father and brother.
The house caught fire and the gunman left the building, wounded a woman in a car then moved towards the college campus, firing bullets as he went. Police said he opened fire on a city bus, a police car and other vehicles, as well as bystanders and pedestrians.
The driver of a car leaving a campus parking lot was killed and one passenger was wounded as the car crashed through a block wall.
Jerry Cunningham Rathner, who lives near the house that caught fire, said she heard gunshots and came out onto her porch to see a man shooting at the residence. Soon, the building erupted in flames and was billowing smoke.
The gunman, dressed in black and wearing an ammunition belt, pointed a rifle at a woman in a car and told her to pull over, Cunningham Rathner said. He then signalled to a second car, also driven by a woman, to slow down and began firing into the vehicle.
"He fired three to four shots into the car boom, boom, boom, right at her," said Cunningham Rathner, who went to the woman's aid and saw she was wounded in the shoulder. She said the gunman then abducted the woman in the first car and drove away.
The gunman entered the campus, fatally wounding a woman as he made his way toward the college's library, where students were studying for final exams.
"We saw a woman get shot in the head," said administrative assistant Trena Johnson, who looked out the window of the dean's office, where she works, when she heard gunfire. "I haven't been able to stop shaking."
The gunman continued to shoot at people in the library, Seabrooks said, but apparently didn't hit anybody there as dozens ran for the exits.
"The officers came in and directly engaged the suspect and he was shot and killed on the scene," said Johnson.
President Obama, who was in Santa Monica for a Democratic fundraiser lunch, was rerouted to avoid the area around the campus. His visit was not thought to be linked to the shootings.
After the gunman was killed, police wearing helmets and armed with shotguns and rifles searched the campus for a possible second gunman. A man dressed entirely in black, the words "Life is a Gamble" on the back of his sweatshirt, was seen being led away in handcuffs.
Sgt Richard Lewis, a police spokesman, said at a news conference on Friday night that the man was questioned and released, and he is not a suspect. AP
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