SANTA CLARITA, CA — “Nice,” “respectful,” “kind.” The words friends and neighbors use to describe Nathan Berhow, the 16-year-old shooter who killed two classmates and wounded three others at Santa Clarita’s Saugus High School Thursday, clash jarringly with his actions. According to police, Berhow turned 16 Thursday morning, donned black clothes, pulled a semi-automatic handgun from his backpack and took aim, randomly killing classmates in a 16-second attack that forever changed Santa Clarita.
Now as the community grieves, understanding promises to be elusive.
Berhow died Friday afternoon, leaving behind no explanation, no writings or clues to his murderous mindset. Investigators say that there is little evidence to suggest the teen had been radicalized or that he’d been subjected to bullying. He didn’t appear to fit the profile of a deranged loner. He was a Boy Scout, honors student, and a cross-country runner. He had a girlfriend, according to multiple reports. Investigators found no manifesto or suicide note describing any potential motive when they removed a trove of guns from the shooter’s home.
But security footage of the school shooting reportedly shows someone different, a person seen time and again in this era of mass murder: a stone-faced killer bent on destruction.
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Sheriff’s Capt. Kent Wegener said detectives reviewed security video, and the shooting appeared to be completely random, with the gunman firing at anyone in his vicinity. In just 16 seconds, he struck five classmates, then used his last bullet on himself. A 16-year-old girl and 14-year-old boy died from their injuries soon after.
“Today was his 16th birthday,” Los Angeles Sheriff Alex Villanueva told CBS2 Thursday. “(He) was involved in student athletics, so doesn’t fit the bill of someone you would associate with this type of event.”
Friends and neighbors of the Saugus High School shooter described him as a quiet and kind person, not someone they would have expected to open fire on classmates. Investigators from the FBI and ATF swarmed his home Thursday, and found a small trove of guns both registered and unregistered.
“He was respectful, how he talked about others,” neighbor Jared Axen told KTLA5. “It could be just the relationship that he and I had together, but, you know, I just wish he was willing to say that he needed some help.”
Axen said Berhow’s father died about two years ago and it was his understanding Nathan found his father’s body inside the family’s home. According to Axen, the teen struggled with his father’s death. Axen told CBS the teen’s father was a hunter and an alcoholic who was arrested in 2015 on suspicion of attempted battery on his wife.
Despite the family’s hardships, Axen said he was surprised that the boy turned to violence.
“He always seemed to have people around him in his life who really loved him,” Axen told CBS. “I think he forgot that.”
Berhow’s mother, Mami Mastuura, told The Daily Mail on Thursday “I don’t even know what to do right now, I am just praying for my son’s life.”
A cross-country teammate of Berhow’s was shocked he could be capable of such a violent act.
“He was such the nicest person… I don’t know why he would ever do this, especially on his birthday,” the teammate told Fox11.
A student named Maxwell told Fox11 that in the days leading up to the shooting Berhow had been acting differently.
“As far as I could tell from the recent days that I’ve seen him, he was looking kind of down and I guess just kind of depressed about something,” Maxwell said. “I didn’t really ask him what it was that he was depressed about, but from what I could tell he was different. He wasn’t acting like himself.”
Aidan Soto, a fellow Boy Scout and track athlete, told the Los Angeles Times Berhow was the last person he’d imagine would do something so horrible.
“I’m bewildered and looking for answers — the question as to why all this would happen,” Soto told the newspaper. “So many questions no one has the answers to.”
Logan Marquez, a junior at Saugus, was a teammate and close friend of Berhow.
“He’s my friend. I miss him, but like I can’t mourn for him,” Logan told KTLA. “He did take the lives of others.”
“When you usually think of a school shooter, you would think that they are depressed, they have aggression — he had none of that. He did not fit any of the stereotypes you would ever see. He’s super funny. He was always happy.”
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What problems he carried with him, he kept hidden, said Marquez.