Update on SDA School Shooting
10 December, 2024 |
In an update surrounding the Feather River Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) School shooting last Wednesday, the shooter, who killed himself after he opened fire in the school, injuring a 6-year-old and a 5-year-old, has been identified as Glenn Litton. The 56-year-old has, according to one news outlet, a lengthy criminal record, including theft and identity theft, and a history of mental illness. Litton had attended the SDA school in Paradise as a child and might have had a relative who attended Feather River. The shooter wrote about taking “countermeasures” against Feather River as resistance against America’s involvement in the Middle East in the name of the “International Alliance,” an organization that does not seem to exist, yet places Litten as a “Lieutenant” in his writings.
“That’s a motivation that was in his mind. How it was that he conflated what was going on in Palestine and Yemen with the Seventh-day Adventist Church, I can’t speculate. I’m not sure we’ll ever know that,” Butte County Sheriff Kory L. Honea said in a statement on Thursday.
It’s been discovered that Litton had been homeless and was staying in motels around the area while planning a “non-specific mass incident,” as seen in his notes. According to the sheriff, the shooter, who was a lifelong resident of Butte County, made an appointment to visit the SDA school in Red Bluff.
Surveillance footage shows Litton arriving on campus under the pretense of touring the school. He spoke with the principal and discussed enrollment details in a cordial meeting. Footage shows him leaving before doubling back towards the playground, where the children are heading back to class after recess. A surveillance photo shows the suspect reaching for a handgun in his waistband and later opening fire, shooting Roman Mendez, age 6, twice and Elias Wolford, age 5, once before taking his own life with a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
The FBI has stepped in and is inquiring about Litton’s beliefs and ideology to determine his motivation.