Where was the Northern California school shooting on Wednesday? Here’s what to know
READ MORE
Butte County school shooting
Our reporters are on the ground in Oroville and Sacramento covering the aftermath of the shooting at Feather River Adventist, a school in rural Butte County. Read the latest coverage here.
Expand All
Authorities in rural Northern California remain on scene investigating a school shooting at a small private school in Butte County where two children were wounded before the gunman was killed Wednesday.
Here’s where and what we know so far:
Where the Northern California school shooting happened
The shooting unfolded at the Feather River Adventist School, a small Protestant school located two miles southwest of the town of Palermo (population 5,500) in southern Butte County. The school sits not far from the Feather River about five miles south of Oroville and 56 miles north of Sacramento along Highway 70, which had been shut down.
According to the school’s website, the Seventh-day Adventist school was created in 1965 and “is committed to providing quality education in a Christ-filled environment.” A banner outside the school says that the campus educates “children of all faiths.”
The school employs four teachers, one of whom is the principal, and has an enrollment of 37 students in kindergarten through eighth grade, according to authorities and the state Department of Education. The campus is sparse with four classrooms and A-frame foyer set back from the highway. The grounds feature a multipurpose cafeteria, where students were moved after the shooting. It also has a small playground, a basketball court, a baseball field and a swing set with six seats surrounded by a shoulder-high chain-link fence.
It is one of only 18 private schools in the Northern California county, which has roughly 40,000 residents under the age of 18.
“The Feather River Adventist School family exists to show children Jesus, nurture their love for Him and others, teach them to think, and empower them to serve,” reads the mission statement of the school, which is operated by the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
The school, on Cox Lane, sits along a quiet stretch of Highway 70 dotted by farm fields about mile north of Gridley, another farm community of about 7,500 people. On the edge of campus along the roadside, a sign captured by Google Maps in March reads “Make a goal this year to help someone in need.” The Google Maps image was captured the same month the school encouraged the community to visit its Spring Fling, featuring piñatas made by the students.
Children injured, gunman dead at Butte County school
Butte County sheriff’s deputies were called to the school grounds around 1 p.m. when 911 calls said a suspected gunman had entered the grounds.
Sheriff Kory Honea said deputies, along with other law enforcement officials, found the suspected gunman dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound when they arrived.
Two kindergarten students, boys ages 6 and 5, were found wounded, one of whom was airlifted to a hospital. The condition of the children was not immediately known but Honea said “the fact that they are still being treated bodes well for their ultimate recovery.”
Honea said the investigation was underway but it appeared the gunman had been to the school to meet with the principal “to discuss the possibility of enrolling a student.”
The rest of the students were taken about 8 miles north to the Oroville Church of Nazarene to be reunited with their parents.
The school has seen tragedy before when an eighth-grader drowned during a end-of-school houseboat outing on Lake Oroville in June 2003.
David Hardy had been last seen swimming back to the houseboat and pulling a wake board behind him when he slip under the water. Divers searched for the 13-year-old boy near Buoy D-29, an area of the lake that was approximately 300 feet deep. Divers ultimately found Hardy’s body in mid-July.
The graduation party consisted of fewer than 10 students, media reports at the time said, and the students had been “visibly traumatized” after only Hardy’s flotation device resurfaced.
Butte County is not immune to school shootings though, as two incidents had happened more than a decade ago took place at high schools, according to K-12 School Shooting Database, an online website curated by data scientist David Riedman.
No students died in either incident, one of which unfolded when a student held three classmates hostage at Las Plumas High in Oroville before surrendering in 2007. Three years earlier, a student had been shot and wounded during a high school football game several miles away at Biggs High in Gridley.
This story was originally published December 4, 2024 at 5:10 PM.
