Oakland shooting: gunman ‘had multiple targets’

He did not enter a plea or make a statement during his first court appearance
on Wednesday.

Police said Goh acknowledged forcing a woman from her office at gunpoint into
a classroom, where he fatally shot several people before fleeing in one
victim’s car, according to a police affidavit.

Nursing student Ahmad Sayeed said a gunman burst through the back entrance of
the lecture hall holding a terrified school receptionist hostage and began
randomly firing. The receptionist, Katleen Ping, 24, was among the slain.

Police arrested Goh about an hour after the shooting spree at a supermarket a
few miles from campus.

In a Wednesday interview with The Associated Press, Oikos nursing director
Ellen Cervellon said her conversations with several students and faculty
members led her to believe the gunman was looking for her.

She said Goh had dropped out of the nursing program at the tiny private school
around November and became angry when she told him the school could not
refund all his tuition money.

Cervellon wasn’t on campus Monday when the rampage occurred. She did not
return calls on Thursday seeking further comment.

Later on Thursday, several students and staff were allowed to go back inside
the school for the first time since Monday’s shooting as police escorted
them one-by-one to retrieve belongings they had left behind.

As he waited his turn, Tenzin Topchen, 26, stood anxiously while trying to
calm his lingering fears.

“I’m nervous, very nervous,” Topchen said before quickly gathering
his items and driving off in his silver Toyota Camry, which had been parked
behind the school for three days.

Dechen Yangdon, 27, also waited nervously before two investigators took her
inside. She is being hailed as a hero for intuitively locking her classroom
door and turning off the lights after hearing gunshots. The shooter tried
kicking in the door and then fired at it. No students were injured.

As investigators slowly walked Yangdon back inside the school Thursday, they
shook her hand and praised her.

When Yangdon was later asked what it was like being back inside the school,
she gave a blank stare, bowed her head, grabbed her husband’s hand and
quickly walked away.

Moments earlier, a small group of school staff formed a small circle and
prayed near a makeshift memorial of flowers and candles. Many openly wept
and tried to console each other.

Lucas Garcia, 33, who teaches English as a second language at the school, said
on Thursday that he was teaching on Monday when he heard gunshots rang out.

He then heard a voice yelling, “Somebody’s got a gun!”

Garcia said he quickly ordered his students to get up and they managed to
escape through a back door, unharmed.

“We didn’t know what exactly was going on, but figured something terrible
was happening,” he said. “There was total confusion and we were
scared.”

Investigators have said Goh was angry about being teased for his poor English
at the school, which is focused on serving Korean immigrants but is attended
by students from around the world. Victims of Monday’s shootings came from a
number of countries, including Korea, Nepal, Nigeria and the Philippines.

Goh was born in South Korea but became a US citizen, police said.

Chong Sik Hwang, owner of CH Trading Co in San Mateo, said he hired Goh as a
deliveryman at the grocery importing and distribution operation in 2009 but
fired him a few months later for arguing with a customer.

Hwang said Goh told him he was estranged from a wife and 12-year-old daughter
on the East Coast. Records indicate Goh lived in Virginia from 2005 until
about 2009, when he was evicted from his apartment.

Born Su Nam Ko, he filed a petition in February 2002 with the Circuit Court in
Fairfax County, Virginia, to change his name to One L Goh, records show.

The reason he listed on the petition was, “I do not like my current name
because it sounds like girl’s name.”

Source: agencies

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