Suspect in Oakland mass killing says, ‘I couldn’t stop it’

Former nursing student, One Goh, who is accused of murdering seven people and wounding three others at Oikos University appeared in Alameda County Superior Court on January 7, 2013 in Oakland, Calif. During the court session Judge Carrie Panetta ruled that Goh is incompetent to stand trial. less Former nursing student, One Goh, who is accused of murdering seven people and wounding three others at Oikos University appeared in Alameda County Superior Court on January 7, 2013 in Oakland, Calif. During the ... more Photo: Sean Havey, The Chronicle Photo: Sean Havey, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 24 Caption Close Suspect in Oakland mass killing says, ‘I couldn’t stop it’ 1 / 24 Back to Gallery

At first, he said the gun just went off.

After that first shot, One Goh said he began to unload dozens of rounds into his former classmates at Oikos University, killing seven and wounding three.

“I was just shooting, shooting,” Goh, 47, told Oakland police detectives in a recorded interview the day of the killing. “I couldn’t stop it. I just kept shooting — again, again and again.”

The alleged confession was recorded in an interrogation room following the massacre at the small Christian college on April 2, 2012, and was played by prosecutors Monday morning at a hearing in Alameda County Superior Court, where this week, a judge will determine whether Goh is competent to stand trial in the capital-murder case.

Goh sat silently in court Monday with his hands cuffed at his sides, listening to the recording as it played on a large video monitor above his head. He stared down, pressing his chin into his chest.

Dr. Todd Schirmer, a psychologist at Napa State Hospital, where Goh has been cared for since being declared incompetent to stand trial in 2012, reversed his earlier assessment and cleared Goh for trial, saying he is no longer delusional.

Defense attorneys, though, countered that Goh remains incapable of assisting with his defense on seven counts of murder, three counts of attempted murder, and several enhancements and special circumstances.

Several other doctors who care for Goh at Napa State Hospital have testified that he is not mentally fit to stand trial.

Spiraling downward

Goh’s interview with police reveals the killing to be the final, violent act for the increasingly paranoid former Oikos student, who began to deteriorate mentally in the months leading up to the attack, said his attorney, Assistant Public Defender Dave Klaus.

Goh told the detectives that he took public transportation to the school on Edgewater Drive that morning to try to get his money back from an administrator after he dropped out of the school in November 2011. He said that if he didn’t get his money back, he would kill the administrator and then himself, Klaus described after court Monday. When he apparently didn’t find the administrator, he went into a classroom and allegedly began the horrific rampage.

Goh had enrolled at the school in July 2011 and started out as an outstanding student.

But later he came to believe his teachers were conspiring against him by handing out test answers to the other students in class — one of many paranoid delusions that ultimately drove him to drop out of school and become homeless, Klaus said.

Bought gun earlier

Goh, who had no criminal record or documented psychiatric problems, said in the video that he bought the alleged murder weapon and four magazines at Bullseye Castro Valley Gun Shop in February 2012.

The final push over the edge seemed to come weeks before the killing, when Goh and his father took a trip to Virginia to visit a memorial for his brother, U.S. Army Sgt. Su Wan Ko, who died the year before in a freak accident when his car slammed into a massive boulder that had fallen off a cliff onto Interstate 77.

Goh was pulled over by a Virginia State Trooper for speeding in a construction site on his way to visit the scene of the crash, something he believed was part of a larger conspiracy against him, Klaus said.

“I can’t take it anymore! They’re doing things in a really sneaky way,” Goh told Oakland detectives while recounting the story. “I’m tired of taking bull— from authority.”

Goh’s attorneys said their client is asking to be put to death for the killings, but wants to plead not guilty so he can take the stand and explain his side of the events. The defendant, though, refuses to accept he is mentally ill, Klaus said.

“The delusion that he’s not mentally ill makes it impossible for him to assist us throughout every step in the case,” Klaus said.

January deadline

A deadline to determine whether he’s competent is next month. If he’s not deemed fit, Goh may be placed under Murphy conservatorship, where he will remain committed indefinitely in a mental institution. If he was ever determined to be competent, prosecutors could again pursue charges.

“Mr. Goh will never walk free again,” Klaus said. “He will either be in prison or a locked mental facility.”