San Bernardino Apartment Shooting: 10 People Injured, 3 Extremely Critical

At least 10 people were shot, three of whom severely injured, after an exchange of gunfire at an apartment complex in San Bernardino, California, on Monday, police said.

Police set up a perimeter around the crime scene on East Lynwood Drive, north of the 210 Freeway and east of Waterman Avenue. According to Captain Richard Lawhead of the San Bernardino Police Department, the suspects fired multiple times using handguns and rifles before fleeing the scene.

“It was a chaotic scene,” Lawhead said. The people who were wounded from the incident were taken to three hospitals, Loma Linda University Medical Center, St. Bernadine Medical Center in San Bernardino and Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in Colton.

He said since the investigation was in its early stages, many of the questions remain unanswered. Lawhead said though there was gang activity in the area, at the moment there was no evidence which could attribute the shooting to gang rivalry. No weapons were recovered from the scene.

According to Lawhead, the shooting took place in the common area of the complex and all the people who were shot were believed to be adults. No suspects were taken into custody. Lawhead said descriptions of the suspects were limited and there were no vehicle description or forearm recovery related to the case.

Officers responded to a call reporting shots fired at 1277 East Lynwood Drive on Sunday at 10:45 p.m. PT (1.45 a.m. EDT, Monday). They arrived at the scene to find at least 10 victims. People gathered in the common area to play games, possibly dice and at that time, someone showed up at the gathering and the shooting started, Lawhead said.

"We believe that there was an exchange of gunfire," he said, reported CNN. "I can tell you multiple shots were fired, I don't want to guess how many. We do have some people that have been transported to the station for investigative purposes so we hope that they will yield information for us."

East Lynwood Drive and nearby roads were closed due to the incident.

"My brother-in-law could hear bullets flying past our house, he was outside at the time of the shooting," Alysa Marie, who lives near the apartment complex, told CNN. She said she heard about 15 to 20 gunshots one after another.

"About five minutes later the helicopter was circling around our street (Lynwood), talking on the loudspeaker saying to put down the weapons, for the people who were on the ground to get up and get to safety and to let the law enforcement do their job," she said adding that the area had a large police presence soon after and that she heard about 10 ambulances drive past her home.

Eduardo Rivas, who lives a block away, described hearing multiple shots as well. "I heard around four shots, then what sounded like a motorcycle speeding off, after that just a continuation of gunshots," Rivas said.

According to CBS News, the police said a few stray bullets went into apartments nearby but no one was hurt from the incident.