A man opened fire on a birthday pool party Sunday at a San Diego apartment complex, killing a woman and injuring seven others, authorities said.
Officials were planning to brief the media on the investigation at 11:15 a.m. Monday. NBC 7 is planning to offer live coverage of the news conference.
The shooter, identified as 49-year-old Peter Selis, looked "relaxed" amid the chaos, a witness told NBC 7.
“From the clubhouse, there’s a view of the pool area where we could see the shooter sitting there with a beer in one hand and the gun in the other. He looked pretty relaxed,” the witness said.
The shooting took place shortly after 6 p.m. at the pool area of the La Jolla Crossroads apartment complex located on Judicial Drive, west of Interstate 805, San Diego Police Chief Shelley Zimmerman said.
According to witnesses, Selis walked into the pool area where friends were celebrating a resident's 50th birthday. One witness said that when the resident walked up to Selis and invited him to join the festivities, the suspect lifted up his shirt, took out the gun and shot him in the stomach. He continued shooting at partygoers around the pool until he was out of bullets, the witness said.
A police helicopter arrived to the scene first and the pilot reported seeing multiple victims and that the suspect was still in the pool area, and appeared to be reloading.
Three officers on the ground shot and killed the suspect after he pointed a gun at them, Zimmerman said.
The police chief said seven people were taken to area hospitals with gunshot wounds. One woman died of her injuries and several others remain in critical condition, according to Zimmerman, who did not identify the victims.
A man broke his arm while fleeing and was taken to a local hospital, Zimmerman said.
Resident Laurne Seed said she heard gunshots around 6 p.m., got down and closed her apartment windows. About a minute later, she said another round of six or seven shots were fired and people could be heard screaming.
"Lots of screaming, lots of people screaming," Seed recalled. “From the screams, you could hear that somebody or multiple people were hit,” Seed said. She could see people on the balconies yelling and ducking for cover.
Another tenant told NBC 7 his fianceé is a nurse and both ran down to the pool area to see if they could help. He said when they heard a second round of gunshots the couple ran into the clubhouse to hide.
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A woman who said was at the pool area at the time of the shooting said she was able to escape when Selis stopped to reload his gun.
A witness described Selis as calm and said he had a smirk on his face during the shooting.
Selis lived in the apartment complex, police said.
At a briefing on Monday, Zimmerman said Selis was despondent over a recent breakup with his girlfriend. Investigators said Selis called his ex-girlfriend and told her he had just shot two people and the police had arrived on scene.
The suspect stayed on the phone with the ex-girlfriend while the shooting continued, Zimmerman said.
