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Community Rallies Around Kindergartners After California School Shooting: A Story of Resilience and Support

In Citizen
January 18, 2025

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Two young children in kindergarten are in a "critical but stable" condition after a shooting at their school in Northern California. The shooter, who had a criminal history and mental health issues, targeted the boys on the rural campus. They were quickly taken to hospitals for treatment.

Written by Soumya Karlamangla and Orlando Mayorquín

Soumya Karlamangla provided coverage from San Francisco, while Orlando Mayorquín reported from Oroville, California.

Two young children in kindergarten were walking to the bathroom during lunchtime on a Wednesday at Feather River Adventist School. It was just a quick trip before they returned to their classroom.

Instead, not long after, they were shot and severely injured by someone with a gun.

Two young boys, Roman Mendez, 6, and Elias Wolford, 5, were quickly taken from their school in Oroville, California, with one transported by ambulance and the other by helicopter to hospitals urgently.

Vanessa Diaz expressed her distress over her brother Roman’s condition in the intensive care unit, mentioning that it is a heartbreaking situation for her as he is still unconscious.

The Butte County Sheriff’s Office announced on Thursday that the boys’ condition had improved to "critical but stable", bringing a sense of hope to the rural community located about 60 miles north of Sacramento. This community has experienced a lot of hardship in recent years. Residents are coming together to organize fundraisers, hold vigils, and raise money to support the victims and their families, just as they have done in the past in this agricultural region.

In the past six years, people living in this area experienced the devastating Camp fire, which resulted in the loss of 85 lives and the destruction of the town of Paradise, located approximately 20 miles away. Additionally, a year prior to the wildfire, residents in Oroville had to quickly gather their belongings and evacuate the town in fear of a potential catastrophic failure of the Oroville Dam.

During the shooting incident on Wednesday, authorities suspect that the shooter, named Glenn Litton, 56, specifically chose to target the parochial school due to its connection with the Seventh-day Adventists, a Protestant Christian group. Litton later took his own life.

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