More details have come to light about a shooting at a San Diego apartment complex that left one woman dead and multiple people injured.
The Los Angeles Times reports the shooting happened Sunday evening (April 30) in the University City area at the La Jolla Crossroads Apartments on Judicial Drive. Police docs revealed gunman Peter Selis, 49, shot into a crowd of at least 30 people who were attending a pool party at the complex. As dozens fled the scene, Selis reportedly told the victims “You can either leave or you can stay here and die,” while looking relaxed with a beer in one hand and a loaded gun in the other.
“We got down, we closed the windows and then about a minute later, six or seven more shots, lots of screaming, lots of people screaming,” Lauren Seed, a witness who saw the shooting from her apartment window said. “From the screams, you could hear that somebody or multiple people were hit.” Police arrived on the scene shortly after the shooting with three firing at the gunman after he reportedly shot at the officers. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
In total, four black women, two black men and a Latino man were shot. Another man broke his arm while fleeing from gunfire. A woman was also pronounced dead.
“Our hearts go out to the victims,” Diego Police Chief Shelley Zimmerman said. “There’s a lot of work to be done.”
Witnesses who were at the pool party described the attendees as nice people who even offered Selis food just before he opened fire. “Six or seven minutes later it’s just pow, pow, pow, pow — out of nowhere,” Drew Phillips said. His friend was the host of the pool party. “…There was no indication that he was there to do evil.”
Selis was reportedly facing financial turmoil before the shooting with roughly $100,000 in medical and credit card debt and a bankruptcy filing in 2015. He was married with two children and stepson and worked as a car mechanic at the San Diego Ford dealership. His employment may have ended in 2013, but his photograph still remains on the company’s website.
Police haven’t determined a motive in the shooting.
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