A firefighter was killed and another wounded at a Los Angeles County fire station Tuesday morning, officials said Tuesday, after one of their colleagues opened fire.
The shooter, a firefighter who was off-duty at the time, was later found dead in their Agua Dulce home, which was discovered ablaze after the deadly fire station attack.
"As a fire chief, I never thought that when our firefighters face danger that they would face that danger in one of our community fire stations," Los Angeles County Fire Chief Daryl Osby said at a press conference. "I never thought it would be me, nor our fire department family that would suffer this type of loss."
The shooting was reported at 10:55 a.m. at a fire station in Agua Dulce, about 50 miles north of Los Angeles in an unincorporated part of the county.
Two firefighters working at the station were shot, a 54-year-old captain and a 44-year-old firefighter specialist who had been with the department for more than 20 years, Osby said.
The 44-year-old was shot multiple times in the torso, sheriff's department officials said, and he later died from his injuries.
Neither of the two victims has been identified by authorities.
The shooter was identified only as an off-duty firefighter who lived near the station and was also assigned to work there, Lt. Brandon Dean of the Los Angeles County Sheriff Department's homicide bureau said.
The suspect barricaded themself in the Agua Dulce home before flames began to billow from it. Local news helicopters captured footage of the home on fire.
Officials said the suspect was found at the home in an empty pool, dead from a gunshot wound to the head.
"This morning when I received the news, it was some of the worst news that I heard in my career," Osby said, his voice breaking at times. "I've dealt with a lot of death and a lot of fallen members in my department, and I've always prayed that we would never have a line of duty death. I never thought that if it occurred, that it would occur in this fashion."
What prompted the deadly attack, Dean said, is still under investigation.