A Santa Monica College student who was shot while in an SUV on campus during Friday’s shooting spree has died, it was reported. She is the fifth victim from the rampage.
SMC officials have confirmed Sunday to the media Marcela Dia Franco, 26, died of her injuries; she died at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Westwood.
Marcela, who had registered to take classes during the upcoming summer session at SMC, had visited the campus Friday with her father, 68-year-old Carlos Navarro Franco; he also died.
According to news reports, Marcela Franco was visiting campus to buy textbooks.
Three others were also killed, reportedly, during the shooting spree, including the brother and father of the suspected gunman and a woman outside the SMC library.
According to SMC and news reports, the community college created a fund in honor of the Franco family.
The suspected gunman has been identified as John Zawahri, 23; law enforcement officials gunned him down early Friday afternoon, one day before what would have been his twenty-fourth birthday.
SMPD and other law enforcement agencies are still trying to determine Zawarhi’s motives, though during a press conference Saturday afternoon Santa Monica Police Chief Jacqueline Seabrooks stated she presumed the shooting spree to be premeditated.
Seabrooks added Zawarhi was dressed in all black and maintained with him an assault rifle and about 1,300 ammunition rounds during the shooting spree.
The shooting spree, which apparently started just before noon Friday when a house fire was reported at Yorkshire Avenue, last 13 minutes, according to authorities and reports; the house was apparently where Zawarhi allegedly killed his brother and father.
Zawarhi had reportedly enrolled in classes at SMC in 2010.
