The California shooting suspect used a fake story to gain access to the school

A gunman in the US state of California who shot and injured two children aged six and five at a school before shooting himself and killing himself used a “trick” to get to the school.

The children are in critical but stable condition and were being treated at a trauma center, officials said Thursday.

The attack took place on Wednesday at a school affiliated with the Seventh-Day Adventist Church near Oroville, California, 89 kilometers from Sacramento.

The investigators said they believe that the gunman was targeting the school because it is associated with the church promoted as a response to the war in Gaza.

A police officer on Thursday said a letter was found detailing the gunman’s intentions. The note said he wanted to “kill children” as a “response to America’s involvement in the Genocide and Oppression of the Palestinians and the invasion of Yemen”.

Authorities said the gunman had a long history of mental health and crime, including theft, fraud and forgery over the years.

The shooting happened shortly after 13:00 local time (21:00 GMT) at the Feather River School of Seventh-Day Adventists.

Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said the gunman, 56-year-old Glenn Litton, had scheduled a meeting with the school’s principal to discuss a student registration issue – police say he was a regular at the school.

The meeting was going well and Litton visited, Sheriff Honea said, but things took a turn for the worse when the gunman walked into the bathroom and opened fire. This gunshot hit the students outside the classroom, hitting two children studying in the kindergarten.

The gunman then pointed the gun at himself, police said. He was found dead by first responders with a gun next to his body.

The 35 children left in this school were transferred to the church, and reunited with their families.

Sheriff Honea said Wednesday that the young victims had “very serious” injuries.

“I am thankful that they are still alive but they still have a long way to go.”

Sheriff Honea previously said that investigators “found some information that leads us to believe that the subject that caused this incident was targeted at this school because of its affiliation with the Sabbath Church”.

He previously noted that authorities believe the shooting was an isolated incident, but a statewide notification was sent to other Seventh-Day Adventist Church schools out of an abundance of caution.

The church is a Protestant Christian denomination with over 21 million members worldwide. There are one million members of the church in North America, according to the North American Division of Seventh-Day Adventists.