By EUGENE GARCIA, AMY TAXIN and JOHN ANTCZAK (Associated Press)
TRABUCO CANYON, Calif. (AP) — The retired police sergeant who opened fireplace in a well-liked Southern California biker bar throughout a full of life night had traveled from Ohio to confront his estranged spouse, whom he shot within the face earlier than turning his gun on the group, authorities stated.
John Snowling killed three folks, together with his spouse’s eating companion and a person who approached him as Snowling retrieved extra weapons from his truck, and wounded six others, Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes stated Thursday. He was fatally shot by deputies inside minutes of the rampage.
The taking pictures unfolded as a canopy band entertained friends through the bar’s fashionable weekly spaghetti night time. Some froze and others ran as bullets flew contained in the bar earlier than Snowling exited to the parking zone and continued to fireplace, witnesses and authorities stated.
As the taking pictures started, M Street band keyboardist Mark Johnson hid behind a speaker along with his spouse, singer Debbie Johnson.
“Once he started shooting, it was very indiscriminate,” Mark Johnson stated.
Snowling, 59, was a retired police sergeant with the Ventura Police Department in Southern California. His spouse, Marie Snowling, had filed for divorce in December 2022, citing irreconcilable variations. The proceedings have been ongoing and the case was scheduled for a compulsory settlement convention in November.
The two had been married for greater than three many years and have two grownup kids.
Officials stated John Snowling traveled from Ohio, the place he had been dwelling on a 7-acre property along with his canine, based on his divorce lawyer, Tristan teGroen. It was unclear when he arrived in Southern California, the place he nonetheless owns property in Camarillo. There was “no murmur of domestic violence or threats or anything like that from the other attorney,” teGroen stated.
John Snowling used two weapons at the start of the taking pictures after which went to retrieve two extra from his truck. All 4 — three handguns and a shotgun — have been bought legally, Barnes stated.
Two of these killed weren’t instantly named and the third was recognized as John Leehey, 67, of Irvine, Calif. All 9 folks shot have been adults. Marie Snowling was acutely aware and talking however remained within the hospital Thursday, Barnes stated.
Her father, William Mosby, of Lake Forest, advised The Orange County Register, that John Snowling couldn’t “deal with the divorce.”
Kenneth H.J. Henjum, Marie Snowling’s legal professional, stated in an electronic mail that her household was in shock and was requesting privateness.
John Snowling had labored for the police division in coastal Ventura, northwest of Los Angeles, from 1986 to 2014. Ventura Police Chief Darin Schindler issued a press release expressing condolences to the victims’ households, the survivors and the deputies who responded.
Cook’s Corner has lengthy been a spot for motorcyclists to collect for bands, open-mic nights or only a chilly beer after an extended trip. It calls itself the oldest motorbike bar in Southern California and it sits on the intersection of two picturesque highways in an space of scrubby hills and bicycle trails. It attracts everybody from motorbike riders on choppers to avid cyclists in Lycra and households with younger kids.
“It’s a Disneyland for bikers,” Kamran Amiri, who has been a Cook’s Corner common for twenty years, stated Thursday.
Amiri, who was there Wednesday however left earlier than the taking pictures, stated the bar is “just full of the friendliest people” who go there to speak over a drink, take heed to music or exhibit their bikes.
Hours earlier than the taking pictures, rows of bikes and bikes framed the gravel entrance the place plaques describe the bar’s historical past.
M Street had carried out in Cook’s Corner’s outside space earlier than, however this was the band’s first time on the stage inside, Mark and Debbie Johnson stated.
Two folks within the crowd have been celebrating birthdays, and the band promised a particular track later within the night, Debbie Johnson stated.
It by no means got here.
“We launched into our next song and somewhere in the middle of it this man just walks in, doesn’t say a word, and just starts shooting,” she stated.
Some bargoers fled and ran up a close-by hill.
Mark Johnson stated that when the gunman went outdoors, he and about 30 others shut the doorways and hunkered down inside. Johnson referred to as 911.
“We opened the back gate to see where he was and he immediately started shooting,” he stated.
He and his spouse stated two of their fellow bandmembers have been wounded and have been anticipated to outlive. The fifth member was not injured.
“I have never been so happy to see dozens of police cars heading my way,” Debbie Johnson stated. “We were fish in a very small barrel.”
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Taxin reported from Santa Ana, Calif., and Antczak from Los Angeles. Stefanie Dazio and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
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This model corrects the spelling of the title of the legal professional for John Snowling.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”