Police look for suspects after 2 boys fatally shot outside California elementary school

Ryan W. Miller | USA TODAY

Two boys sitting in a van in a parking lot of a Northern California elementary school were fatally shot early Saturday, police said.

Police did not identify the boys, ages 11 and 14, who were confronted in the parking lot of Searles Elementary School in Union City, about 30 miles outside San Francisco. Reports of gunshots in the area came in to 911 dispatchers.

The 14-year-old was pronounced dead at the scene, and the 11-year-old died en route to the hospital, the Union City Police Department said in a news release.

"All of a sudden, we heard this pop, pop, pop, pop, I mean it just kept going, it almost sounded like a machine gun type, I mean it was just constant," Gigi Erickson, who lives near the school, told KPIX-TV. "I’m just so heartbroken that these kids had to go through that."

The department called the shooting a "tragic incident" in its statement and said it was looking into the motive. No arrests have been made, nor do police have a description of the suspect or suspects, the department said.

Police said they were looking into whether the shooting could be connected to a nonfatal shooting days earlier or to gang violence.

In a statement, New Haven Unified School District Superintendent John Thompson said one of the boys attended school in the district and the other was a former student.

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