2013 Santa Monica shootings

On the morning of June 7, 2013, a spree shooting occurred in Santa Monica, California, beginning with a domestic dispute and fire at a home on Yorkshire Avenue. The California Highway Patrol received a call at 11:52 a.m. reporting shots fired, and police discovered the house on fire. Once the fire was extinguished, the bodies of two men — 55-year-old Samir Zawahri and his 24-year-old son Christopher Zawahri — were found inside, both having died of gunshot wounds. The perpetrator, 23-year-old John Zawahri, was Samir's other son and Christopher's brother.

After setting the fire, Zawahri, armed with a homemade AR-15-type semi-automatic rifle assembled from legally purchased components (despite being legally barred from possessing firearms), carjacked a 41-year-old woman driving a Mazda hatchback. A passing driver, 50-year-old Debra Lynn Fine, attempted to intervene and was shot and wounded. Zawahri forced the carjacked driver to take him to the Santa Monica College campus, shooting at a Big Blue Bus carrying about two dozen passengers (three of whom were injured) and firing on a police cruiser along the way.

At the college, Zawahri shot into a Ford Explorer, killing 68-year-old groundskeeper Carlos Navarro Franco and fatally wounding his 26-year-old daughter and passenger, Marcela Diaz Franco, a student at the college, who died in the hospital two days later. He then shot and killed 68-year-old Margarita Gomez, who was collecting recyclables outside the library, before entering the library and opening fire on students and staff, some of whom barricaded themselves in a storage room. Witnesses described gunshots and screams but many were able to hide or escape unharmed. Zawahri fired at least 70 rounds during the roughly thirteen-minute spree and dropped a duffel bag containing extra magazines, ammunition, and a .44 caliber revolver.

Police officers Robert Sparks and Jason Salas, along with Santa Monica College Captain Ray Bottenfield, exchanged gunfire with Zawahri inside the library and fatally shot him; an autopsy found he had sustained 25 gunshot wounds. Authorities investigated up to nine crime scenes tied to the incident and continued searching the campus for additional shooters or victims for more than eight hours.

Investigators described the attack as premeditated given Zawahri's extensive armament and preparation. A handwritten note found on his body expressed remorse for killing his father and brother but did not state a clear motive; investigators believed mental illness played a role. Zawahri had a history of school threats and a 2006 psychiatric hospitalization, and the California Department of Justice had notified him in 2011 that he was ineligible to purchase firearms. President Barack Obama was in Santa Monica for a fundraiser at the time, and his presence contributed to a rapid law enforcement response. Two months later, the Los Angeles Community College District Board of Trustees adopted a resolution banning firearms on its campuses.