DOWNTOWN — The woman shot dead on the Santa Monica College campus during a killing spree on Friday has been identified as Margarita Gomez, the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office confirmed Monday.
Gomez, 68, was said to be shot by John Zawahri, 23, during a 12-minute rampage that stretched over a mile and left six people, including the shooter, dead. She attended church at Saint Anne's Catholic Church, as did victims Carlos Navarro Franco, 68, a groundskeeper at the college, and his daughter Marcela Franco, 26, who took classes there, according to the church office.
The shootings took place Friday.
Police first received word that shots had been fired on the 2000 block of Yorkshire Avenue. When officers arrived, they discovered a house on fire, one woman wounded and that the suspect had carjacked another.
Two bodies were found inside the burning home, belonging to Zawahri's father, Samir Zawahri, 55, and his brother, Christopher, 24, according to the Santa Monica Police Department.
Zawahri forced the carjacking victim to drive him to Santa Monica College, shooting indiscriminately along the way, police said Saturday. He struck Carlos Franco, who crashed his red Ford Explorer with his daughter, Marcela, inside.
Franco died, and Marcela Franco succumbed to her injuries at the Reagan UCLA Medical Center on Sunday.
Zawahri got out of the car and entered the campus with officers from the SMPD and Santa Monica College Police Department on his tail. Along the way he dropped a bag loaded with ammunition, a receiver for his rifle and an old hand gun.
Before he made it to the library, he shot and killed Gomez. He entered the library and began shooting, killing no one.
Police caught up to him at the library and wounded him, police said. By the time they moved his body out of the library, Zawahri had died.
ashley@www.smdp.com
