Gunman near Mill Valley kills woman, wounds man, then is found dead

Sarah Butler runs from an active shooter situation on Blithedale Avenue in Mill Valley on May 3, 2018. Sarah Butler runs from an active shooter situation on Blithedale Avenue in Mill Valley on May 3, 2018. Photo: Josh Edelson, Special To The Chronicle Photo: Josh Edelson, Special To The Chronicle Image 1 of / 17 Caption Close Gunman near Mill Valley kills woman, wounds man, then is found dead 1 / 17 Back to Gallery

An elderly gunman shot and killed a woman and wounded a man Thursday afternoon at an apartment complex on the outskirts of Mill Valley before he was found dead roughly two hours later, from a gunshot wound, after tactical officers entered the room in which he had holed up, Marin County Sheriff’s officials said.

The first report of shots fired came at 3:24 p.m. on the 900 block of East Blithedale Avenue in the Alto neighborhood just outside the city limits, near Horse Hill. Sheriff’s officials quickly warned of an “active shooter,” and deputies blocked off Tower Drive north of East Blithedale, just west of Highway 101 on a main route into Mill Valley.

Sheriff’s Sgt. Brenton Schneider said deputies found a man and a woman suffering from what appeared to be gunshot wounds and carried them to waiting ambulances, which took them to a hospital.

“Unfortunately, the female victim in this incident is deceased,” Schneider said Thursday night.

He said the man was in the intensive care unit at a local hospital, believed to be Marin General Hospital, but he declined to give his condition. He did not release the names of the gunman or his victims.

The suspected shooter, a man about 80 years old, fled into a room in the apartment complex, forcing deputies to evacuate nearby apartments, Schneider said. Authorities urged residents in the Mill Valley neighborhoods just west of Highway 101 to shelter in place.

Deputies set up a perimeter and, late in the afternoon, entered the room where the gunman was known to be.

“Tactical teams made entry to an apartment and located a male deceased from a gunshot wound,” Schneider said shortly before 6 p.m., informing residents that the shelter-in-place order had been lifted. “We believe there is no further threat to the community at this time.”

It was unclear what relationship the gunman had with his victims, but a woman who identified herself as Sarah Butler ran out of the complex shortly after the incident and shouted, “‘Some crazy guy showed up, shot the building owner and the person he was with,’” said Josh Edelson, a freelance photographer who lives in a neighboring apartment building.

Edelson went out with his camera, he said, after seeing from his balcony an older man face down in the street. As firefighters loaded the man into an ambulance, he said, a uniformed officer ran up carrying an injured woman over his shoulder.

Officers and deputies from at least six law-enforcement agencies were at the scene. Footage from television news helicopters showed officers outside the apartment complex immediately after the incident, pointing guns and helping residents flee to safety.

Schneider said detectives will remain at the apartment complex throughout the night investigating. There were no immediate details on the nature of a dispute or what might have precipitated it.

Chronicle staff writer Jenna Lyons contributed to this report.

Annie Ma and Peter Fimrite are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: ama@sfchronicle.com pfimrite@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @anniema15, @pfimrite