NorCal Gunman's Wife Found Dead; Shooting Rampage Began With Her Killing
RANCHO TEHAMA RESERVE (CBS / AP) -- The wife of a man who went on a murderous rampage in a rural Northern California town Tuesday was found dead inside their home, authorities said Wednesday.
Meanwhile, court documents show the shooter was prohibited from having guns as part of a restraining order.
Tehama County Assistant Sheriff Phil Johnston said gunman Kevin Neal killed his wife at their home and hid her body under a floorboard of the house before continuing his shooting spree.
Neal illegally manufactured his own firearms, according to investigators.
The revelation brings the total number of people killed by Neal in the community of Rancho Tehama to five. 10 others were wounded. Neal was killed in a shootout with police.
At the time of the shootings, the 44-year-old Neal was out on bail for a charge of stabbing a neighbor. He had also been the object of complaints from neighbors who said he had been firing off hundreds of rounds of ammunition.
Yet Neal was free and able to use a semiautomatic rifle and two handguns Tuesday to go on a shooting rampage in seven different locations across Rancho Tehama, including an elementary school.
A judge had barred Neal from having guns as part of a restraining order after he was charged with his neighbor's stabbing on February 28. Court records also show that Neal was charged with illegally firing a weapon and possessing an illegal assault rifle on Jan. 31. He was charged with five felonies and two misdemeanors.
Out on $160,000 bail, he was due back in court in January of 2018 on assault charges.
The court records show a judge ordering Neal to stay away from the woman who was stabbed and her mother-in-law on Feb. 28. As part of that protective order, Neal was barred from having guns.
Johnston said Wednesday that police went to Neal's home at the end of a dirt road in Rancho Tehama Reserve several times for reports that he was shooting guns, but they never saw him with the weapons.
Neal had two homemade semi-automatic weapons and two handguns registered in someone else's name.
Johnston said Wednesday no one reported a domestic violence incident that they believe set Neal off. He said neighbors heard a disturbance at the Neal residence on Monday night but that no one called authorities.
But his many contacts with authorities raised questions of why he was out of custody and able to go on the 45-minute rampage that began with the killing of two neighbors in an apparent act of revenge before he went looking for random victims.
Cristal Caravez and her father live across a ravine from the roadway where the gunman and his first victims lived.
She said they and others heard constant gunfire from the area of the gunman's house, but couldn't say for sure it was him firing.
"You could hear the yelling. He'd go off the hinges," she said. The shooting, "it would be during the day, during the night, I mean, it didn't matter."
She and her father, who is president of the homeowners association, said neighbors would complain to the sheriff's department, which referred the complaints back to the homeowners association.
"The sheriff wouldn't do anything about it," said Juan Caravez.
The gunman's sister, Sheridan Orr, said her brother had struggled with mental illness throughout his life and at times had a violent temper.
She said Neal had "no business" owning firearms.
Johnston said the shooter was facing charges of assaulting one of the feuding neighbors in January and that she had a restraining order against him.
Johnston did not comment on the shooter's access to firearms.
Johnston declined to identify the shooter until his relatives were notified, but he confirmed the gunman was charged with assault in January and had a restraining order placed against him. The district attorney, Gregg Cohen, told the Sacramento Bee he is prosecuting a man named Kevin Neal in that case.
Neal's mother told The Associated Press her son, who was a marijuana grower, was in a long-running dispute with neighbors he believed were cooking methamphetamine.
The mother, who spoke on condition she be named only as Anne, lives in Raleigh, North Carolina, where she raised Neal. She said she posted his $160,000 bail and spent $10,000 on a lawyer after he was arrested in January for stabbing a neighbor. Neal's mother said the neighbor was slightly cut after Neal grabbed a steak knife out of the hand of the neighbor who was threatening him with it.
She wept as she told The Associated Press she spoke to Neal on the phone on Monday.
"Mom it's all over now," she said he told her. "I have done everything I could do and I am fighting against everyone who lives in this area."
She said Neal apologized to her during their brief conversation, she thought for all the money she had spent on him, saying he was "on a cliff" and the people around him were trying to "execute" him.
"I think the motive of getting even with his neighbors and when it went that far — he just went on a rampage," Johnston said.
Police said surveillance video shows the shooter unsuccessfully trying to enter a nearby elementary school after quick-thinking staff members locked the outside doors and barricaded themselves inside when they heard gunshots.
Johnston said the gunman spent about six minutes shooting into Rancho Tehama Elementary School before driving off to continue shooting elsewhere. Johnston said one student was shot but is expected to survive.
He said the 45-minute rampage ended when a patrol car rammed the stolen vehicle the shooter was driving and killed him in a shootout.
Johnston said officials received multiple 911 calls about gunfire at an intersection of two dirt roads. Minutes later, more calls reporting shots flooded in from different locations, including the school.
Witnesses reported hearing gunshots and children screaming at the school, which has one class of students from kindergarten through fifth grade.
The shootings occurred in the rural community of Rancho Tehama Reserve, a homeowners association in a sparsely populated area of rolling oak woodlands dotted with grazing cattle about 130 miles north of Sacramento.
Many there live in poverty, but others are better off.
"It's not a bad community at all," said Harry Garcia, who was minding his parents' convenience store La Fortuna Market. "Some people keep their properties nice- some don't. They rough it out here. Some go with minimum stuff. Some don't even have power out here."
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