- Feb 26, 2006
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WTF? Didn't like the new doo?
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44880955/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/#.TpYVHN4r3mU
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44880955/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/#.TpYVHN4r3mU
SEAL BEACH, Calif. Six people were shot to death and three others wounded at a hair salon on Wednesday in a normally sedate Southern California beach community, Orange County authorities said. One suspect was in custody.
The shooting occurred at Salon Meritage around 1:30 p.m. in the 500 block of the Pacific Coast Highway, Capt. Mark Stone of the Orange County Fire Authority told NBC LA.
Three victims were rushed to Long Beach Memorial Hospital, reportedly in critical condition.
Victims were believed to be both employees and customers of the salon, KTLA News reported.
Police arrested a man in a white truck during a traffic stop a half-mile from the shooting scene, and police Sgt. Steve Bowles said multiple weapons were seized. He may have been wearing body armor, according to police.
"The officers identified the (suspect's) vehicle as it was leaving the location," Bowles told KCAL9 TV in Los Angeles. "They followed it and made a traffic stop and took the driver into custody."
Bowles described the suspect as cooperative.
The motive was not immediately known.
"It just caught everyone off guard and people started running outside to see what was happening," Zach Benson told NBC LA. "It was a very bizarre scene."
Relatives of victims were being taken to a nearby spiritual center, NBC LA reported.
The quiet beachfront city of approximately 25,000 residents identifies itself as the Gateway to Southern California's Orange County and is located about 30 miles southeast of Los Angeles.
It is home to Leisure World, a gated senior citizen community of 9,000 people, as well as the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station military complex. Two-thirds of the city's 13.23 square miles are occupied by the Seal Beach National Wildlife Refuge.
The city had one homicide last year and none during the previous three years, according to police statistics, the NBC affiliate reported.
The worst mass-killing in Orange County's history was in 1976, when Edward Charles Allaway, at Cal State Fullerton, shot nine people and killed seven, The Orange County Register reported.