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3 dead, 4 wounded California bowling alley shooting

Posted at 5:37 PM, Jan 05, 2019
and last updated 2019-01-05 23:52:57-05

A shooting at a bowling alley late Friday left three men dead and four people wounded in Southern California, and police are trying to find whoever fired the shots, authorities said.

The gunshots at the Gable House Bowl in Torrance went off just before midnight. A fight — first involving young ladies, then men — happened shortly beforehand, sending people running, a witness said.

“Then … maybe a minute and a half later, all of the sudden all we heard was, pop, pop, pop,” the witness, Dana Scott, told RMG News. “Bowlers were diving under the benches. The people that were still bowling on the lanes were on the floors, underneath the seats.”

“People were looking for their parents, because this is a family league. You’ve got mothers, fathers, sons, daughters … everybody’s friends in that league,” she said.

No arrests were immediately reported after the shooting. City police were “working to identify the suspect(s) involved,” they said in a news release.

By late Saturday morning, relatives of those who were shot were clustered outside the bowling alley, standing behind yellow police tape. Some of them embraced; others looked toward the building’s rear, where a coroner’s van pulled out.

Keithnisha More, one of those standing outside Saturday, said her brother-in-law was one of those who died and that he leaves behind a son.

“How do you explain to a 5-year-old boy that his father is dead?” More said. “How does my sister-in-law tell this little boy that daddy is gone? Just gone.”

The names of the dead and wounded weren’t immediately released.

Witness: There was ‘complete chaos’ before the shooting

Wes Hamad told CNN affiliates KTLA and KABC that he was in the bowling alley with his 13-year-old niece and a cousin when they saw a “huge fight” break out. The fight lasted around five minutes and blocked the entrance of the bowling alley, he said.

Hamad told affiliates the scene devolved into “complete chaos.”

“I grabbed my niece and started running,” he said. “As we were running, we heard 15 shots.”

Hamad told the affiliates he saw a woman crying over a man who had been shot in the head and neck multiple times.

A man who says he was in a karaoke area of the building when the shooting happened described a scene of panic.

“People started to run inside the karaoke (area), shouting, ‘Gunshot, gunshot, gunshot,'” the man, identified on Facebook as D Ryon Thomas, says in a video posted to the social network.

Staff ushered people into an area in the back of the building, he said.

Police ask public for video

Detectives are going to examine surveillance video recorded inside the building, Torrance police Sgt. Ron Harris said.

“We’re also asking anyone in the public who might have seen anything, or (recorded) any cell phone video or other video, to come forward and help in this investigation,” Harris said.

Torrance police officers saw multiple people with gunshot wounds when they arrived, and they started lifesaving measures, including CPR and using a defibrillator, police said in a news release.

Video from RMG News showed numerous firefighters or other first responders tending to people outside.

The Gable House Bowl is open until 3 a.m. on Saturdays. The complex also offers laser tag and a bar, its website says.

Torrance is about 20 miles from Los Angeles.