Oakland Shooting Suspect Is Not Remorseful, Police Chief Says
One L. Goh started shooting when students would not line up for him.
April 3, 2012— -- The former student who shot up an Oakland school burst in looking for a female administrator, but he opened fire when he ordered students to line up and they didn't cooperate, police said today.
One L. Goh, 43, was being cooperative with police about why he killed seven students and wounded three others, but "he has not been particularly remorseful," Oakland Police Chief Howard Jordan said.
Goh arrived at Oikos University Monday morning asking for a specific administrator, Jordan said.
When he found out that she wasn't there, Goh then pushed a secretary into a classroom and asked the students to line-up. When some students refused to comply, Goh began shooting, Jordan said.
Goh, a Korean national, was arrested Monday about an hour after his shooting rampage at Oakland's Oikos University. Five victims died at the scene, while another two died after being taken to a hospital. There is no information on the other three victims.
"We've learned that the suspect was upset with the administration at the school," Jordan said today on "Good Morning America."
"He was also upset that students in the past, when he attended the school, mistreated him, disrespected him, and things of that nature. He was having, we believe, some behavioral problems at the school and was asked to leave several months ago."
The police chief believes that the students Goh allegedly shot were not the ones who may have bothered Goh.
"We don't believe any of the victims teased him," said Jordan.
"We've learned that this was a very chaotic, calculated and determined gentleman that came there with a very specific intent to kill people, and that's what his motive was and that's what he carried out," Jordan said on "Good Morning America."
The victims were six women and one man, ranging from 21 to 40 and originally from Korea, Nigeria and Nepal, according to Jordan.
The one male victim was killed when Goh commandeered his car, according to ABC News Bay Area affiliate KGO-TV.
Jordan said police suspected that when Goh realized the police were on their way he stopped shooting in order to escape. "We don't believe the suspect was intending to have a confrontation with police, so he left immediately after the shooting," said Jordan.
Goh was deeply in debt with tens of thousands of dollars in federal tax liens against him and had two deaths in his immediate family last year. He had left behind a string of minor traffic citations in his former home state of Virginia and was evicted from one apartment complex in the state, according to ABC News affiliate KGO. Goh had been kicked out of Oikos University several months ago,
according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
An unidentified source also told the paper that Goh might have been involved in a dispute with campus officials.
Two of his family members died in the past 13 months, according to the Chronicle. His brother, U.S. Army Sgt. Su Wan Ko, died in March 2011 in an auto wreck in Virginia while on special forces training, the Chronicle reported. His mother, Oak Chul Kim, died a year ago in Seoul, according to a neighbor who told the Chronicle that she had moved there after deciding to leave Oakland. Goh's father, Young Nam Ko, had been living in Oakland but recently moved, neighbors said.
Goh also had federal tax liens in 2006 and 2009 totaling more than $23,000, the Chronicle reported, adding that he managed to pay off some amount of his tax debt.
Police in Oakland have released a timeline of the chaotic events that took place Monday at the Christian university that focuses on nursing.
At 10:33 a.m. Monday, the Oakland Police Department received a 911 call regarding a woman on the ground bleeding at Oikos University. Police arrived on the scene at 10:36 a.m. to find the victim with a life-threatening gunshot wound. In the meantime, several other calls were received regarding other victims.
Believing the suspect to still be inside, police established a perimeter around the building in use by Oikos University, a post-secondary vocational school that offers courses of study in Asian medicine, theology, music and nursing and has strong ties to the Korean-American community.
Breaking a window, Oakland Police and Oakland Unified School Police gained access to the school and coordinated an emergency evacuation and search.
"Officers found several victims throughout the classroom; throughout the building," Jordan said Monday. "There were several people hiding in locked buildings, locked doors, behind desks. As you can imagine, very frightened. Very scared. Some of them were injured, so we had to rescue them out."
Thirteen people were removed from the building by authorities. All the shooting victims were adults, according to Jordan.
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