In another example of how active shooter events aren’t restricted to occurring on or near school properties, on September 12, 2018, Javier Casarez committed his attack at a trucking center in Bakersfield, California. According to reports, however, Casarez didn’t shoot all his victims at the trucking center, but after shooting several people there went to a nearby residence and shot at least two more.
Events such as this one demonstrate why, as much as law enforcement needs to train for a hyper-efficient response to any educational setting when such an attack occurs, we can’t train exclusively for that scenario. It is becoming more common, based on recent events, for an active shooter attack to be done “on the move,” encompassing several locations and the travel areas between them as the shooter goes from one to the next. Additionally, several of the most recent active shooter events haven’t occurred in or near a school at all, but are more frequently being committed at business locations in commercial or industrial centers.
The attack Casarez committed spanned a nearly 40 minute time frame, involved two different locations and claimed the lives of five victims. At approximately 5pm on the day of the event, Casarez forced his ex-wife, apparently at gunpoint, to go with him to T&T Trucking Inc., where his first victim was Manuel Contreras and his second was his ex-wife, Petra Maribel Bolanos De Casarez. After shooting Contreras and his ex-wife, Casarez then targeted one Antonio Valadez, firing at Mr. Valadez as he was running away but then tracking him down and shooting him in his car as he was trying to escape.
Casarez then reportedly traveled to the home of Eliseo Garcia Cazares – a reported friend of Casarez (don’t get confused by the similar spelling of the names) – where Casarez shot Eliseo Cazares and his daughter, Laura Garcia. Authorities felt it was possible that Garcia had tried to intervene and defend her father, only to become another victim of Casarez herself.
From the Cazares home, Casarez left and carjacked a woman who had her child in the car with her. She and the child escaped and Casarez drove away in her vehicle. It was spotted a short time later by a sheriff’s deputy. When approached by the deputy, Cazarez shot himself in the stomach and the wound eventually proved to be fatal.
One of the unique characteristics of this event is that it was committed with a single weapon – a handgun – and that weapon was chambered for .50 caliber. There aren’t that many .50-caliber handguns and while the reports don’t indicate the make, model or manufacturer of the weapon, any .50 caliber handgun is going to create severe injuries, most especially when shooting a target at close range. When Cazarez shot himself in the stomach with such a handgun, the internal injuries created had to have gone far beyond the temporary and permanent wound channel to include massive impact injuries from the expanding gas and the resulting blood loss.
Post incident investigation revealed that the most likely motive for the shooting was domestic related. Casarez and his ex-wife had recently been involved in child custody / support court actions and a court date for the month following the incident had been set. Also, Casarez reportedly believed his ex-wife had been having an affair while they were married and that was one contributing factor for the divorce.
Cazarez’s criminal history included one count of vehicle theft but no violent crimes. While the on-going domestic related court issues could be assumed as part of the motivation for the attack, no one interviewed could point to a specific “flash point,” or something that set Casarez off. Further, there is nothing but speculation as to why Casarez killed his reported friend, Cazares and his daughter Garcia.
