Santa Monica shooting: 1 victim identified as Carlos Navarro Franco - Los Angeles Times
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Santa Monica shooting: 1 victim identified as Carlos Navarro Franco

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One victim shot and killed in the shooting rampage near Santa Monica College on Friday has been identified.

Carlos Navarro Franco, 68, of West Los Angeles was one of four people who died Friday, according to the Los Angeles County coroner’s office.

More details are expected during a press conference with Santa Monica police, which has been moved from 10 a.m. to noon.

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The shooting rampage that killed five, including the suspect, lasted for about 10 minutes. The violence began just before noon Friday, when gunshots rang out near Kansas and Yorkshire avenues, a quiet neighborhood near the 10 Freeway.

A house there was engulfed in flames and a man wearing all black with an ammunition belt around his waist was standing outside, holding a large rifle in his hands, an eyewitness said.

Firefighters later found the bodies of two men inside the house. Police sources, who requested anonymity because of the ongoing investigation, said the men were Samir Zawahri, 55, the owner of the house, and one of his adult sons. A second son is suspected of being the shooter, the sources said.

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The gunman accosted the driver of a Mazda hatchback, told her to stop, got in the vehicle and told her to drive him to Santa Monica College. The gunman fired several rounds at random into the neighborhood with a semiautomatic rifle, witnesses said.

Near Cloverfield and Pico boulevards, the gunman fired on a transit bus from front to back, shattering windows. Passengers dived to the floor for cover, said Marta Fagerstroem, a student from Sweden who was on the bus and studying for an exam.

At a parking lot at 20th and Pearl streets, the suspect fired at a red Ford Explorer, hitting its driver, Franco, who died at the scene. Franco’s passenger was seriously wounded.

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Campus police intercepted the gunman on the edge of campus and exchanged gunfire with him, authorities said. They continued to trade shots as the man ran toward the school’s library and shot a woman outside the building’s entrance before disappearing inside.

The woman outside the library later died at a hospital.

During the rampage, five people were wounded, two seriously, police said.

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Santa Monica shootings: Toll lowered, ‘person of interest’ released

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