Shooting at Southern California Edison Takes Multiple Victims; Baldwin Park Schools on Lockdown

The SoCal Edison office where the shooting occurred -- part of the San Gabriel Valley Corporate Campus

A shooting at the Irwindale branch of Southern California Edison -- located at 4900 Rivergrade Road -- has taken multiple victims, KTLA reports. And the San Gabriel Valley Tribune identifies "multiple dead bodies." [Update: The shooter has been identified as Edison employee Andre Turner. He killed two of his managers, and injured two more. Details below.]

Two Baldwin Park schools within a couple miles, including Olive Middle School, are on lockdown.

According to KNX news radio, four to five people were possibly shot. A Twitter user named Janey Bennett says, "There's been a shooting @ SoCal Edison, my husband's hiding under a desk!!"

The shooter appears to still be active. Live updates to come.

Update, 2:30 p.m.: Souther California Edison
Tweets, "Shooting in Rivergrade. We have NOT confirmed # of injuries at this time. More details to come."

KTLA

KCAL9 has details from within the building: "Boyfriend of woman who works in building says she & 20 others are barricaded in break room. Blocking door with refrigerator." The L.A. County Fire Department calls it a "major rescue."

Update, 2:40 p.m.: More from KCAL9. Two of six reported victims are reported dead. Witnesses tell TV reporters that shooter also killed himself. The boyfriend of the woman inside the building (above) says the shooter is a former employee.

He used a rifle to shoot up the Edison office -- what sounds like a horrific ordeal, lasting for over an hour. Employees are now being evacuated.

Students at the Baldwin Park schools (Walnut Elementary and Olive Middle School) are reportedly safe. The lockdown at Walnut has been lifted. Parents from Olive are being told to stay home and wait for that lockdown to lift as well.

Update, 2:45 p.m.: The only information that the Irwindale Police Department has received is that the gunman shot one male and one female -- then himself. As far as the department knows, the shooter is the only one dead.

It would make sense that the gunman worked at the facility, as KCAL9 reports that anyone entering the building must show a badge.

Strangely, not even two weeks ago, an Edison customer in Pasadena -- upset about the massive power outages that resulted from this winter's historic windstorm -- threatened to kill Edison employees if his power wasn't restored.

Update, 2:55 p.m.: A man named Bryan, the husband of a woman who works at the San Gabriel Valley Corporate Campus, tells KCAL9 that Edison employees are "surprised" that their coworker was capable of this. Bryan claims the two shooting victims (aside from the gunman) were managers at the facility. "A lot of budget cuts are going on right now, and everyone's hurting," he speculates.

The condition of the two victims is unknown at this time.

Update, 3:10 p.m.: Captain Mike Taylor of the Baldwin Park Police Department tells KCAL9 that "there might be other victims inside the building that we don't know about; we're searching for them." He calls the varying counts of victims/dead bodies a result of the "pandemonium" of the shooting.

"All the information you're getting right now is preliminary," he says.

Taylor describes the scene: Employees were "extremely scared and agitated, coming out of the building as quickly as possible," he says. "They were scared human beings."

Update, 3:45 p.m.: The L.A. County Fire Department has confirmed that three shooting victims are dead, including the gunman. Three more are critical, and two are unknown. "Law enforcement still clearing building."

Update, 4:20 p.m.: Based on information from the Baldwin Park Police Department, the Los Angeles Times reports that of the three fatalities, "one of the victims died at the scene," one "died on the way to the hospital" and the third was the shooter, who killed himself. More from the Times:

A source said the gunman was also an employee at the Edison building who worked as as systems analyst. His name was not released. At least some of the victims were supervisors at Edison.

KCAL9 has posted a bone-chilling text transcript between a woman trapped in the Edison office and her husband, worried sick on the outside. (Looks like it could be the same Bryan the station spoke with earlier.)

Update, December 18: The shooter has been identified as Andre Turner, 48, of Norco. He was an Edison employee who worked in IT, as were his victims.

Here are the names of the deceased, reportedly both managers at the Irwindale branch:

Henry Serrano, 56, of Walnut Robert Lindsay, 53, of Chino

And the two others critically injured in the attack:

Angela Alvarez, 46, of Glendale Abhay Pimpale, 38, of Montebello

Investigators haven't yet determined Turner's motive forgoing on such a deadly rampage -- one in which he "methodically picked off his co-workers with a semiautomatic handgun ... before turning the weapon on himself," according to the Associated Press. Edison officials are, quite appropriately, calling December 16 "one of the most horrible days in our company's history."

[@simone_electra / swilson@laweekly.com / @LAWeeklyNews]