4 dead, including child, after mass shooting in Southern California

ORANGE, California -- A shooting at a Southern California office building on Wednesday evening killed four people, including a child, and injured a fifth person before police shot and wounded the gunman, authorities said.

The violence in the city of Orange, located southeast of Los Angeles, was the nation’s third mass shooting in just over two weeks.

Officers arrived at a two-story office building as shots were being fired and located "multiple victims at the scene including fatalities," according to the Orange Police Department.

After officers confronted the gunman, police said in a statement that "the situation has been stabilized and there is no threat to the public."

The wounded gunman, along with a woman injured in the shooting, were transported to a local hospital in critical condition, according to Lt. Jen Amat of the Orange Police Department.

“I can tell you that we haven’t had an incident like this in the city of Orange since 1997,” Amat said. “It’s just such a tragedy for the victims, their families, our community and our police department.”

Police said they were still determining the relationship between the shooter and the victims, whose ages and names have not been released.

The shootings happened on the second floor of the office building, Amat said. She had no details about the police confrontation with the gunman, what may have sparked the attack or why a child may have been at the building.

Signs outside the building at 202 W. Lincoln Avenue indicated a handful of businesses were located there, including an insurance agency and a counseling service.

Cody Lev, who lives across the street from the office building, told The Orange County Register newspaper that he heard three loud pops which were spaced out, then three more. There was silence, then he heard numerous shots, followed by sirens and then more shots.

The FBI's Los Angeles division confirmed that it also responded to the shooting scene, but the FBI indicated that the Orange Police Department was the lead investigative agency.

News of the mass shooting drew immediate condemnation.

"Horrifying and heartbreaking. Our hearts are with the families impacted by this terrible tragedy tonight," California Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a tweet on Wednesday night.

Congresswoman Katie Porter, a California Democrat whose district includes the city of Orange, said that she too was “deeply saddened.”

The Orange killings follow a mass shooting at a supermarket in Boulder, Colorado last week that left 10 dead. A week before that six Asian women were among eight people killed in three Atlanta, Georgia-area spas.

The last mass shooting in Orange in December 1997 involved a gunman armed with an assault rifle who attacked a California Department of Transportation maintenance yard.

Arturo Reyes Torres, 41, an equipment operator who had been fired six weeks earlier, killed four people and wounded others, including a police officer, before police killed him.