California Quarry Shooting Suspect Shot During Police Manhunt

Oct. 6, 2011 — -- The suspect in a shooting rampage at a California quarry was shot dead by police today following an overnight dragnet.

Shareef Allman, 47, was gunned down in a driveway in a Cupertino neighborhood, the same area where he disappeared Wednesday while being pursued by police after he opened fire on colleagues in a nearby quarry run by Lehigh Southwest Cement Plant.

"[The suspect] was crouched behind a vehicle and he was confronted by deputies," Santa Clara County Sheriff Laurie Smith said at a news conference today. "The deputies recognized him as matching the description of the suspect we were looking for. Shots were fired and the subject was pronounced dead at the scene."

Smith said all three deputies, two men and one woman, fired after the suspect displayed a handgun in a "threatening manner."

All three had been deputies for less than five years, but Smith said they were "exceptional, great deputies who did a great job at the scene."

Allman's barrage on Wednesday morning killed three people and wounded seven, police said. Allman had an assault rifle and a handgun when he walked in to work and began shooting.

The deceased victims have been identified as John Robert Vallejos, 51, Mark Munoz, 59, and Manuel Guadalupe Pinon, 48, according to ABC's San Francisco affiliate KGO-TV.

Police conducted a yard by yard search for over 12 hours Wednesday in the Cupertino neighborhood. The search continued overnight with a helicopter using thermal imaging. A ground search combed the area this morning.

Allman's attacked occurred about 4:30 a.m. Wednesday and had last been seen at around 7 a.m. when he shot a woman at an intersection near the Hewlett-Packard campus and attempted to carjack her. The woman has non-life threatening injuries.

Colleagues at the quarry in Cupertino described Allman as a disgrunteld employee. They said that Allman was upset that he had been transferred to the night shift, according to KGO-TV. Allman had reportedly been frequently late for work and had more accidents than anybody else at the quarry.

However, Allman's friends were shocked to hear the news.

"Shareef has too much to live for," his friend Mitchell Juian told KGO-TV. "For him to snap like this is totally out of character for as long as I've known him."

Allman was a truck operator at the quarry and also produced and hosted a public access television show.

Police found Allman's car at a gas station and have surveillance footage of him walking away from the car with a rifle. Authorities also recovered two assault rifles, a shotgun and a handgun, according to KGO-TV.

Three of the wounded were taken to Santa Clara Valley Medical Center for treatment and are reportedly in good and fair condition. Another victim was taken to Stanford University Medical Center in Palo Alto. Another victim was taken to the Stanford University Medical Center in Palo Alto.