A convicted murderer in Arizona sold the shooter to the two kindergartners who were injured in the incident last month at a little faith-based college in Northern California, according to investigators.
Glenn Litton, 56, shot two guys who were outside for corner at , Feather River Adventist School in Oroville , before fatally shooting himself, Butte County sheriff’s officials have said.
The Sheriff’s Office announced in a news release on Tuesday that Litton was using a Glock 19 weapon, a personally produced weapons known as a ghost gun, in the class shooting.
According to the Butte sheriff’s office, Litton purchased Jesse Kitagawa Jr., a convicted criminal who is prohibited from buying or possessing any weapon, for the devil weapons used in the school shooting. Kitagawa, 45, of Phoenix sold the ghost gun to Litton for$ 300 several weeks earlier in Arizona, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
Ghost guns are often made from firearm parts and are occasionally sold in kits, which do not include serial numbers and are challenging for law enforcement to monitor. With limited instances, the purchase or transfer of ownership of self-manufactured or self-assembled weapon is prohibited under California law, according to the , state Department of Justice.
Phoenix person arrested
Kitagawa was detained by the Phoenix Police Department on fear of being a criminal with a rifle. According to Butte sheriff’s leaders, Kitagawa made his initial appearance in court on Friday.
Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea stated in the information launch that his investigators” spent many hours resolutely pursuing leads” to find the person who sold the ghost weapon to Litton” to carry out his terrible plan.”
According to Maricopa County prosecutor’s data, Kitagawa has since been released from jail after posting a parole relationship. Butte sheriff’s officials said Kitagawa’s second judge date has not yet been scheduled, and they expect the Maricopa County District Attorney’s Office to fully charge Kitagawa at that time.
In October,  , California Attorney General Rob Bonta warned that the devil weapons market , is extremely shifting toward “skip-the-background-check products and services”, which are designed to allow people to illegally make spirit guns without any background check or another protections using 3-D printers, computer numerical control milling machines and related ghost gun manufacturing machines.
According to Butte sheriff’s officers, police conducted some search warrants to track down the ghost gun used in the shooting at the Oroville class and find out how Litton got his hands on it.
A college shooter was found guilty of a felony.
Officials have described Litton as a poor man who has devoted his years to the Sacramento and Chico locations. On Tuesday, sheriff’s officials said Litton himself was a convicted murderer with an extensive criminal history, so it was unlawful for him to have a firearm.
Sheriff’s police, with support from the FBI, analyzed the pieces on the spirit gun and found evidence the gun was earlier owned by someone who lived in Buckeye, Arizona, a district in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Additionally, the detectives discovered proof Litton was visiting Phoenix in April.
Butte sheriff’s detectives traveled to Arizona last month to continue their investigation. The 77-year-old Buckeye man was able to identify the ghost gun that was used in the Oroville school shooting, according to the detectives ‘ investigation. According to the Buckeye resident, the ghost gun was purchased from the widow of the firearm’s original owner after he passed away.
According to the detectives, Arizona law permits the original owner of the ghost gun to purchase the firearm after sale to the Buckeye resident.
Sheriff’s deputies said they then discovered proof that the Buckeye resident resold Kitagawa the ghost gun on April 8. Sheriff’s officials said this ghost gun was also legal under Arizona law because Kitagawa has an Arizona driver’s license and assured a Buckeye resident that he could legally possess firearms.
Ghost gun sold in Arizona
Because it is against Arizona law for Kitagawa to possess a firearm as a convicted felon, the detectives discovered that Kitagawa then sold the ghost gun to Litton on April 10 at a motel in Chandler, Arizona.
On Thursday, Butte sheriff’s detectives and Phoenix police detectives served a search warrant at Kitagawa’s home.
Sheriff’s officials said the detectives found Litton using the weapon at a Phoenix gun range and had purchased Phoenix ammunition consistent with the bullets used in the school shooting in Oroville. Litton traveled back to California on April 19 on a Greyhound bus.
The Seventh-day Adventist Church is a part of the Oroville elementary school. Litton arrived on the campus on December 4th after holding a meeting with school administrators, using a fictitious name and a concocted reason.
According to Sheriff’s officials, Litton informed the school that his daughter had recently relocated to nearby Gridley and that he was thinking about enrolling his grandson in the rural kindergarten through eighth grade in Butte County, which is close to Palermo and Oroville.
Honea has claimed that the meeting was a “ruse,” that Litton and the school had no connections, and that he had no grandchildren.
The full scope of Litton’s motive was unclear, but investigators believe that the school was targeted because of its Seventh-day Adventist affiliation.
Litton apparently set up a similar ploy at another small Seventh-day Adventist school, this one in Red Bluff about 70 miles northwest of Oroville, Honea said.
At some point in Litton’s youth, Litton had attended a Seventh-day Adventist school in Paradise, also in Butte County, where there is both a Seventh-day Adventist elementary school and high school, the latter of which is called an academy. The , sheriff said last month at a news conference , it was unclear which school Litton attended or for how long, and investigators were seeking school records to clarify those details.
Honea said it had been “many, many, many years” since Litton attended the Paradise school, and that Litton may have also had a relative who attended the school where the shooting occurred,” but that would have been many, many years ago”.
Honea has remarked that it is based on his understanding of the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s activities and why he chose that.
Following the Feather River Adventist School’s scheduled meeting and tour, Litton made his way toward the parking lot. The sheriff said Litton then turned through a breezeway that cuts through the schoolhouse and leads to a playground, near which he shot the , two boys, 5-year-old Elias Wolford and 6-year-old Roman Mendez.
After that, Litton self-töted himself and was discovered dead by a first-responding California Highway Patrol officer outside the school.
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