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Update: 8 People Are Dead In Southern California Salon Shooting

<p>An onlooker reacts near the site where six people were killed and three were wounded in a shooting at a hair salon in Seal Beach, Calif.</p>
Chris Carlson
/
AP

An onlooker reacts near the site where six people were killed and three were wounded in a shooting at a hair salon in Seal Beach, Calif.

Update at 6:30 a.m. ET, Oct. 13: The death toll is now up to eight.

Our original post:

A gunman opened fire killing six and wounding three others at an Orange County, Calif. hair salon this afternoon. The Orange County Register reportsthat the shooting rampage is one of Seal Beach's worst mass killings.

The newspaper reports:

Sgt. Steve Bowles of the Seal Beach Police Department said a male suspect was taken into custody about a half-mile away from the business, Salon Meritage, in his vehicle. Bowles said authorities found multiple weapons in the man's car.

"He was cooperative and taken into custody without incident," Bowles said.

Authorities and medical teams responded to a call of a shooting at a business at about 1:30 p.m.

"Officers responded to a call of shots fired at a local business," Bowles said "We found six confirmed deceased and three injured."

Local stationKTLA reports that the salon was busy at the time of the shootings and that there were people inside who escaped unharmed.

The Los Angeles Times reports people at a nearby business hid in a bathroom waiting for the shooting to stop. The Times describes the scene:

About 100 bystanders stood near the strip mall as authorities from at least three police departments descended on Seal Beach, where nine people were shot and six killed at Salon Meritage.

One woman, who declined to give her name, said she was working at a nearby salon when the receptionist told them about the shooting.

She and about six other people hid in the bathroom about 10 to 15 minutes until they heard that the suspect had been caught.

There are still no reports of a motive.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Eyder Peralta is NPR's East Africa correspondent based in Nairobi, Kenya.