OROVILLE, Calif. (AP) — A gunman who critically wounded two kindergartners at a tiny religious school in Northern California was mentally ill and believed by targeting children he was carrying out “counter-measures” in response to America’s involvement in Middle East violence, a sheriff said Thursday.
Glenn Litton used a “ruse” of pretending to enroll a fictitious grandson to gain entry to the Feather River School of Seventh-Day Adventists in Oroville, Butte County Sheriff Kory L. Honea said during a news conference.
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A person walks outside of Feather River Adventist School after a shooting Thursday, Dec. 5, 2024, in Oroville, Calif. (AP Photo/Terry Chea)
Sheriff's deputies and other law enforcement walk outside Feather River Adventist School after a shooting Thursday, Dec. 5, 2024, in Oroville, Calif. (AP Photo/Terry Chea)
The exterior of Feather River Adventist School is shown after a shooting Thursday, Dec. 5, 2024, in Oroville, Calif. (AP Photo/Terry Chea)
Sheriff's deputies walks past a playground outside Feather River Adventist School after a shooting Thursday, Dec. 5, 2024, in Oroville, Calif. (AP Photo/Terry Chea)
School officials and Sheriff's deputies gather outside Feather River Adventist School after a shooting Thursday, Dec. 5, 2024, in Oroville, Calif. (AP Photo/Terry Chea)
Police tape blocks a road outside the Feather River Adventist School after a shooting Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024, in Oroville, Calif. (Michael Weber/The Chico Enterprise-Record via AP)
Emergency personnel state outside the Feather River Adventist School after a shooting Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024, in Oroville, Calif. (Michael Weber/The Chico Enterprise-Record via AP)
Police officers stand near a body covered by a tarp outside of Feather River Adventist School after a shooting Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024, in Oroville, Calif. (Michael Weber/The Chico Enterprise-Record via AP)
Police officers stand near a body covered by a tarp outside of Feather River Adventist School after a shooting Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024, in Oroville, Calif. (Michael Weber/The Chico Enterprise-Record via AP)
Litton used a handgun to shoot two kindergarten boys, ages 5 and 6, who remained in critical condition Thursday, the sheriff said. Litton then used the weapon — a so-called ghost gun, which is difficult for investigators to trace — to kill himself just yards (meters) from the school's playground.
While Honea said Litton, 56, also had a lengthy criminal history — mostly theft and identity theft — authorities said they did not find any violent crimes on his record.
Honea said the man is believed to have targeted the Feather River School in Wednesday’s attack, though it's unclear why. Litton had attended a school of Seventh-Day Adventists in another town as a child, the sheriff said, and he possibly had a relative who attended Feather River as a young child.
But in Litton's writings, the sheriff said, the suspect wrote about taking “counter-measures” against the school in response to America’s involvement in violence in the Middle East.
“That’s a motivation that was in his mind. How it was that he conflated what’s going on in Palestine and Yemen with the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, I can’t speculate. I’m not sure that we’ll ever know that,” Honea said.
He said Litton had similarly scheduled an appointment at another Seventh-Day Adventist school, set for Thursday.
The Seventh-Day Adventist Church is a Christian denomination in which members consider the Bible their only creed and believe that the second coming of Christ is near. The shooting occurred shortly after 1 p.m. Wednesday at the private K-8 school with fewer than three dozen students in Oroville, on the edge of the tiny community of Palermo, about 65 miles (105 kilometers) north of Sacramento.
Law enforcement officials have documented Litton's history of mental illness back to when he was a teenager, though Honea said investigators have not found a concrete diagnosis.
In recent years, Litton searched online for guns and explosives and wrote notes to himself to plan a non-specific mass incident, though Butte County District Attorney Michael L. Ramsey said they were “just ruminations." Litton was a convicted felon and therefore could not legally possess a firearm.
The sheriff said the 6-year-old suffered two gunshot wounds that caused internal injuries, while the 5-year-old was shot once.
“The fact that they are currently still with us is a miracle,” Honea said of the children, adding they will likely face additional surgeries and “have a very long road ahead of them, in terms of recovery.”
Honea said the gunman was dropped off by an Uber driver for the fake meeting with a school administrator.
Following the shooting, the gunman's body was found near the slide and other playground equipment on school grounds, which abut ranchland where cattle graze. A handgun was found nearby, Honea said.
The school was closed Thursday but sheriff’s deputies walked around the campus behind shuttered gates and staff members carried classroom items out to their cars.
Shawn Webber, an Oroville city councilmember, said the region was reeling.
“When you see this on the news or nationally and it’s like, those things don’t happen here. Well, yesterday it happened here,” he said Thursday. “It just absolutely violated the peace of our community.”
A candlelight vigil is planned for Friday.
It was the the latest among dozens of school shootings around the U.S. in recent years, including especially deadly ones in Newtown, Connecticut, Parkland, Florida, and Uvalde, Texas. The shootings have set off fervent gun control debates and frayed the nerves of parents whose children have grown accustomed to doing active shooter drills in their classrooms.
But the shootings have done little to move the needle on national gun laws. Firearms were the leading cause of death among children in 2020 and 2021, according to KFF, a nonprofit that researches health care issues.
“We know that the close-knit Feather River community will be grieving for a long time, as will the rest of our conference,” said Laurie Trujillo, a spokesperson for the Northern California Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.
Dazio reported from Los Angeles. Associated Press journalists Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire, Hallie Golden in Seattle and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles contributed.
A person walks outside of Feather River Adventist School after a shooting Thursday, Dec. 5, 2024, in Oroville, Calif. (AP Photo/Terry Chea)
Sheriff's deputies and other law enforcement walk outside Feather River Adventist School after a shooting Thursday, Dec. 5, 2024, in Oroville, Calif. (AP Photo/Terry Chea)
The exterior of Feather River Adventist School is shown after a shooting Thursday, Dec. 5, 2024, in Oroville, Calif. (AP Photo/Terry Chea)
Sheriff's deputies walks past a playground outside Feather River Adventist School after a shooting Thursday, Dec. 5, 2024, in Oroville, Calif. (AP Photo/Terry Chea)
School officials and Sheriff's deputies gather outside Feather River Adventist School after a shooting Thursday, Dec. 5, 2024, in Oroville, Calif. (AP Photo/Terry Chea)
Police tape blocks a road outside the Feather River Adventist School after a shooting Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024, in Oroville, Calif. (Michael Weber/The Chico Enterprise-Record via AP)
Emergency personnel state outside the Feather River Adventist School after a shooting Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024, in Oroville, Calif. (Michael Weber/The Chico Enterprise-Record via AP)
Police officers stand near a body covered by a tarp outside of Feather River Adventist School after a shooting Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024, in Oroville, Calif. (Michael Weber/The Chico Enterprise-Record via AP)
Police officers stand near a body covered by a tarp outside of Feather River Adventist School after a shooting Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024, in Oroville, Calif. (Michael Weber/The Chico Enterprise-Record via AP)
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel released 369 Palestinian prisoners and detainees on Saturday in the latest exchange for Israeli hostages captured by Hamas, as a fragile ceasefire held.
Israel views the prisoners as terrorists. Palestinians often see them as freedom fighters resisting a decades-long Israeli military occupation.
Nearly every Palestinian has a friend or family member who has been jailed by Israel for militant attacks or lesser offenses such as rock-throwing. Some are incarcerated for months or years without trial in what is known as administrative detention, which Israel says is needed to prevent attacks and avoid sharing sensitive intelligence.
Among those newly released, 36 had been sentenced to life for involvement in deadly attacks against Israelis. Twelve of those were allowed to return to homes in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem.
Palestinian medics said that four were hospitalized for urgent care. The 24 others with life sentences were being sent into exile.
The rest of the 333 Palestinians released had been detained in Gaza after Hamas’ attack on Oct. 7, 2023, which sparked the war. Israeli forces have arrested hundreds of people in Gaza and held them without trial. As part of the ceasefire, Israel committed to releasing more than 1,000 of them on the condition that they hadn't participated in the Oct. 7 attack.
A look at some prominent prisoners released since the truce took effect on Jan. 19:
Among the most prominent prisoners released is a close aide of militant leader and political figure Marwan Barghouti, who is still imprisoned. The two aren't closely related.
Ahmed Barghouti was given a life sentence for dispatching assailants to carry out attacks that killed Israeli civilians during the second intifada, or Palestinian uprising, in the early 2000s. As a commander in Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, an armed offshoot of the secular Fatah Party, he was also convicted of possession of firearms and attempted murder.
He was sent to Egypt.
Three brothers from east Jerusalem were released after more than 22 years in prison for their involvement in suicide bombings that killed Israelis during the second intifada. Israeli authorities brought Ibrahim, 55, and Musa, 63, to their homes in the West Bank.
The third brother, Khalil, 45, who was convicted of attempted murder and sentenced to life in 2002, was sent to Egypt.
Ibrahim Sarahneh's Ukrainian wife, Irena, had been sentenced to life in prison in 2002 for organizing with her husband a suicide bombing that killed two people in the Israeli city of Rishon Lezion. She was released in 2011 as part of a swap for Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier captured by Hamas.
“The conditions of detention are more difficult than you could imagine,” Ibrahim Sarahneh told The Associated Press as he stepped off a bus in the West Bank village of Beitunia. “There is beating, insults, cursing.”
The Israeli Prison Service says it ensures “all basic rights” of prisoners and detains them according to the law.
Hassan Aweis, 47, and Abdel Karim Aweis, 54, from the occupied West Bank, were released on Saturday after nearly 23 years in prison.
Hassan Aweis was sentenced to life in 2002 on charges of voluntary manslaughter, planting an explosive device and attempted murder. He was involved in planning attacks during the second intifada for the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade.
“It's an indescribable feeling of pain mixed with joy,” Aweis said.
Abdel Karim Aweis — sentenced to the equivalent of six life sentences for throwing an explosive device, attempted murder and assault, among other charges — was transferred to Egypt.
Abu Shakhdam was sentenced to the equivalent of 18 life sentences over his involvement in Hamas attacks that killed dozens of Israelis during the second intifada. They included a suicide bombing that blew up two buses in Beersheba in 2004, killing 16 Israelis, including a 4-year-old.
Abu Shakhdam was arrested in the West Bank in 2004 following a gunfight with Israeli security forces in which he was shot 10 times.
During 21 years in prison, his family said, he finished high school and earned a certificate for psychology courses. He was released on Feb. 8.
Al-Tawil, a prominent Hamas politician in the occupied West Bank, spent nearly two decades in and out of Israeli prisons, in part over allegations that he helped plot suicide bombings.
Most recently, the Israeli military arrested al-Tawil in 2021, saying he had participated in riots and mobilized Hamas political activists in Ramallah, the seat of the semiautonomous Palestinian Authority, Hamas’ main rival. He was held without charge or trial.
Too weak to walk, al-Tawil was taken to a hospital after his release in Ramallah on Feb. 8.
The Palestinian manager of the Gaza branch of World Vision, a Christian aid organization, was arrested in 2016 and accused of diverting tens of millions of dollars to Hamas in a case that drew criticism from rights groups. He was freed on Feb. 1.
El-Halabi and World Vision denied the allegations and independent investigations found no proof of wrongdoing.
A prominent militant leader in the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade during the second intifada, Zubeidi later became a theater director in the Jenin refugee camp, where he promoted what he described as cultural resistance to Israel.
His jailbreak in 2021 — when he and five others used spoons to tunnel out of one of Israel’s most secure prisons and remained at large for days before being caught — thrilled Palestinians and stunned the Israeli security establishment.
In 2019, after Zubeidi had served years in prison for attacks in the early 2000s, Israel arrested him again, accusing him of being involved in shooting attacks that targeted buses of Israeli settlers but caused no injuries.
Zubeidi had been awaiting trial when he was sentenced to five years in prison for his jailbreak. He was released on Jan. 30 into the West Bank.
They hail from east Jerusalem and rose within the ranks of Hamas. Held responsible for deadly attacks during the second intifada, they were handed multiple life sentences in 2002.
They were accused of plotting a suicide bombing at a pool hall near Tel Aviv in 2002 that killed 15 people. Later that year, they were found to have orchestrated a bombing at Hebrew University that killed nine people, including five American students.
All were transferred to Egypt on Jan. 25.
Al-Tous held the title of longest continuously held prisoner in Israel until his release on Jan. 25, Palestinian authorities said.
First arrested in 1985 while fighting Israeli forces along the Jordanian border, the Fatah party activist spent a total of 39 years behind bars. Originally from the West Bank, he was sent into exile.
Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
Israeli-American hostage Sagui Dekel Chen, 36, left, and Israeli-Russian Alexander Troufanov, 29, are escorted by Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters before being handed over to the Red Cross in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Israeli hostages Iair Horn, 46, left, Sagui Dekel Chen, 36, center left, and Alexander Troufanov, 29, right, are escorted by Hamas and islamic Jihad fighters on a stage before being handed over to the Red Cross in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025.(AP Photo/Mohammad Abu Samra)
Palestinian prisoner Hassan Awis, center, is greeted after being released from Israeli prison following a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)
Palestinian prisoners are greeted after being released from Israeli prison following a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
Palestinian prisoner Waddeh Bazrah, 43, is greeted after being released from Israeli prison following a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)