US college shooting suspect charged with murder

OAKLAND, California — A Korean-American arrested over a massacre at a religious college in California was charged with seven counts of murder on Wednesday, prosecutors said.

Students from Oakland's School of Urban Missions Bible College walk past Oikos University in prayer on April 3, 2012 in Oakland, California. SARAH RICE/GETTY IMAGES/AFP

One Goh, 43, who surrendered a short time after the killings Monday in Oakland, near San Francisco, was also charged with three counts of attempted murder, said the Alameda County district attorney’s office.

“The enormity and devastation of these crimes is unprecedented in Alameda County,” District Attorney Nancy E. O’Malley said in a statement posed on her office’s website.

“My office will work tirelessly to ensure that this defendant is brought to justice,” she added.

The suspect allegedly launched his rampage at the Oikos University in Oakland in after being expelled, while also being upset at having been picked on by fellow students, police say.

Identified here as One Goh and by South Korea’s Yonhap news agency as Ko Won-Il, he opened fire with a .45 caliber handgun, according to local media reports.

“He was distraught because he was picked on … He planned [the attack] several weeks in advance,” Oakland police chief Howard Jordan said Tuesday, adding “he has not shown any remorse” about the killings.

Some 35 people were in or near the building at the time. Of those, 10 were hit and five were pronounced dead at the scene. Two others died later in hospital. Survivors were found hiding in locked and darkened
rooms.

Oakland Mayor Jean Quan said the city was trying to recruit more Korean-speaking grief counselors, saying the shooting “will leave the community asking questions for a long time.”

The Oakland Tribune reported that the suspect’s brother, US Army Sergeant Su Wan Ko, died in a traffic accident in Virginia in March 2011 while on special assignment from a research institute in Germany.

The college where the shootings took place offers degrees in nursing, biblical studies and Christian ministry. Its website says “students are given the opportunity to obtain a  Christian education that is based on solid Christian doctrine and ideology.