California gunman kills five in mass shooting: police

An unidentified gunman shot and killed his wife and four other people in a series of shootings in southern California before taking his own life, police said.

Wednesday’s incident happened when the man went with his wife to a trucking company in Bakersfield, California.

He shot and killed a man and then turned his gun on his spouse, killing her, Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood told a news conference.

This is the new normal, if you look across the country. Six people lost their lives in a very short period of time

Donny Youngblood, Kern County Sheriff

He then chased another man from the trucking company before he shot and killed him in front of a nearby sports store.

The gunman later killed two men at a residence. He then commandeered a vehicle from a woman and her child before he killed himself when he was confronted by a sheriff’s deputy, Youngblood said.

He added that the entire incident took place in 10 to 15 minutes, describing the incident as a mass shooting.

“This is the new normal, if you look across the country. Six people lost their lives in a very short period of time,” Youngblood said.

Reasons still unknown

Authorities were working to determine “why this started and why so many players were involved and the connection because obviously these are not random shootings,” Youngblood said.

“There was some type of situation that caused the husband to be extremely upset,” Kern County Sheriff  said.

He did not disclose the identities of the victims, and added the woman whose vehicle was taken, and her child, were unharmed.

Police recovered a pistol at the scene. Authorities were interviewing about 30 witnesses.

Bakersfield is a community of 375,000 people about 185km northeast of Los Angeles.