Santa Monica shooting claims fifth life

Shooting victim and father were killed while buying textbooks

By: Marc Posth, staff writer

Photo Courtesy of nydailynews.com

A fifth person has died after the Jun. 7 shooting in Santa Monica, California which also left five others injured.

Marcela Franco, 26, died the morning of Jun. 9, according to a statement from Santa Monica College. She had been enrolled in courses at the school for the summer.

Franco was the passenger of a Ford Explorer, driven by her father, Carlos Navarro Franco, 68, a school groundskeeper who was also killed in the Jun. 7 attack. The pair was shot while on campus buying textbooks.

That day, 23-year-old John Zawahri allegedly began his rampage early in the morning by killing two people. According to the Los Angeles Times, the victims included the gunman’s father, Samir Zawahri, 55, and his brother Chris, 25.  Their house was then set on fire.

From there, the gunman car-jacked a young woman who was forced to drive around while he fired his assault rifle indiscriminately at a bus, police cars and pedestrians, police said.

The gunman then made his way to a Santa Monica College parking lot, where the Francos were shot at in their red Ford Explorer.

Entering campus, Zawahri allegedly shot and fatally wounded a woman outside the school library, where students were studying for exams. The victim has since been identified as 68-year-old Margarita Gomez.

The suspect continued to shoot at those inside the library, though no one had been reported shot. It was there that police entered, shot and killed the gunman.

The incident happened with President Barack Obama only three miles away at a private fundraiser.

Marc Posth is a writer based in Montreal, but comes from Dubai, France and Singapore – at the same time.  With a background in science, his next logical step is creative writing.