Another Isla Vista shooting shocks Calif. college neighborhood

Two students were wounded during a shooting Monday night that shook residents of Isla Vista, the same California college town that witnessed a brutal killing spree just a year ago.

The Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department told The Los Angeles Times that Monday’s shooting could have been drug- and gang-related.

One student was shot in the chest, the other in the abdomen, KEYT Channel 3 reported.

Richard Martinez’s son, Christopher, was one of six people killed by Elliot Rodger near University of California, Santa Barbara, on May 23, 2014. Three of those victims were Rodger’s roommates who he stabbed to death before going on a shooting spree killing three more people and wounding 14 others.

Martinez said in a statement that Monday’s shooting was “the worst kind of reminder that gun violence can happen at any time and any place. This year while I should be celebrating Christopher’s graduation from UCSB, I’ll be honoring his life, a life that was senselessly cut short.”

Two men reportedly attacked the two college students in their apartment at about 7:30 p.m. One of the suspects robbed and then shot the students before fleeing. The Times reported the other suspect, James Taylor, 22, of Lompoc was subdued by residents as he tried to leave and was later arrested by police.

The suspect who got away, Jose Guadalupe Gutierrez, 22, checked himself in to a hospital in his hometown of Goleta, where he told medical staff he had been in a car accident, KEYT reported. Because of the nature of his injuries, Gutierrez had to be transferred to a hospital in Santa Barbara, where authorities were waiting for him.

Once medically cleared, the suspects will be taken into custody, The Times reported. Because the investigation is ongoing, authorities would not release what the suspects allegedly stole or their gang affiliation.

Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated Elliot Rodger shot and killed six people during his shooting spree. Three of the six people he killed were stabbed.

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