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Thursday, February 21, 2013 ��� Daily News 5A Official: Calif. gunman was loner, ���gamer��� TUSTIN (AP) ��� A woman who was the first of three people killed in a gunman���s rampage has been identified, but her relationship to the shooter ��� a videogame-playing loner ��� remained unknown Wednesday, authorities said. Courtney Aoki, 20, of Buena Park was shot multiple times early Tuesday in the home that gunman Ali Syed, 20, shared with his parents, said Orange County sheriff���s spokesman Jim Amormino. But beyond that, authorities know little about her, including how she got the house, her occupation, and how she might have known Syed, Amormino said. Syed, a part-time community college student who ultimately committed suicide, was a loner and a ������gamer,������ Amormino said. ������He spent a lot of time alone in his room playing video games,������ he said. A 12-gauge shotgun used in the killings belonged to Syed and was purchased by his father about a year ago, he said. The rampage began before dawn Tuesday at the home in Ladera Ranch and ended 25 miles to the north during the early morning rush hour, police said. Syed killed two more people during carjackings, injured at least three more, and shot up cars zooming down a busy freeway interchange before committing suicide with his Simpson holds student research symposium REDDING ��� The public is invited to attend Simpson University���s 3rd annual Student Research Symposium on Saturday, March 2, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in LaBaume-Rudat Hall on campus. Registration starts at 9 a.m. Guests can pick up a ticket for a complimentary lunch in the university dining center at the registration table on the second floor of LaBaume-Rudat. The event, sponsored by the university���s Office of Academic Affairs, is designed to showcase scholarly achievement among undergraduate and graduate students. Participants present their scholarship through 10- to 30-minute presentations or facilitated poster sessions. This year���s conference focuses on the theme of ���marriage��� and features 31 presentations by 26 undergraduates and 10 graduate students. ���While the word invokes the idea of marriage between husband and wife, the intent is to view the term in a broader sense ��� the merging or bringing together of ideas, peoples, nations, and disciplines,��� said Dr. John Ayabe, assistant professor of history and a symposium organizer. ���The university fulfills this through the programs and curriculum it offers, but it also brings together people of different ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds. We have asked our students to explore this idea in their research.��� This year���s presentations include titles such as ���Balancing Individuality and Togetherness,��� ���The Value of the Arts in Peacebuilding, ���Marriage of Non-Pharmacological and MedicinalTreatments for Pain in Chronic Disease Processes,��� and ���The Romanticization of Pocahontas.��� The Student Research Symposium began in 2011 when several Simpson professors saw the need for students to share their research outside the classroom. The organizing committee includes professors Ayabe, Michelle Engblom-Deglmann, Mardy Philippian, and Jill Kendrick, program coordinator for the Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology. With the backing of the provost, the team sought out short abstracts from students, and they were excited to see a high level of participation the first year. Student participation increased by about 30 percent the second year, and excitement continues to grow, Ayabe said. ���We are looking forward to another strong symposium this year from our students and are excited to be able to share their work with the Redding community,��� he said. For a complete list of topics, times and room locations, visit simpsonu.edu/researchsymposium. For more information about the symposium, contact John Ayabe at 530-226-4155 or jayabe@simpsonu.edu. shotgun as police closed in, authorities said. The shooter forced one commuter stopped at a stop sign out of his BMW, marched him to a curb and shot him three times from behind as shocked witnesses looked on, Tustin police Chief Scott Jordan said. The motive for the shootings remained unclear. Syed had no criminal history and no history of mental illness or mental disability, said Lt. Paul Garaven, a Tustin police spokesman. An autopsy will determine whether Syed had any drugs in his system, but Amormino said no illegal drugs were found in the house and there were no signs he was using illegal substances. His parents did not recognize the woman who was shot to death in the Ladera Ranch home, he said. Syed���s parents rushed outside and called police at 4:45 a.m. Tuesday after hearing the gunshots, but Syed had already sped off in his parents��� black SUV. Officials released the recording of a 911 call that Syed���s parents made. In the call the dispatcher tried to elicit information from the shooter���s panicked, sobbing mother as a house alarm blared in the background. ������I think somebody was shot,������ the mother said in her first comprehensible statement. ������I heard a gunshot.������ The dispatcher then asked questions to sort out what happened including whether there was an intruder or if the mother had been shot. ������Yes, there is somebody in our house,������ the mother said. After several minutes, Syed���s father took the phone and said he believed his son may have gotten in a fight with a friend. The father said Syed left the home and took their car but he and his wife had not entered his son���s room to see what happened. We were asleep, we heard something, it sounded like a gunshot,������ he said. ������He���s gone out,������ he said of his son. ������Well, he took the car we had, right? He���s not home right now, so I assume he drove away.������ From Ladera Ranch, the gunman headed north and pulled off Interstate 5 in Tustin, about 20 miles away, with a flat tire, police said. There he fired at and wounded a man in a car, then carjacked a vehicle from a man at a gas station and got back on the freeway, where he fired at commuters, authorities said. The shooter then exited the freeway in nearby Santa Ana and carjacked a BMW, killing driver Melvin Lee Edwards, 69, of Laguna Hills. Edwards served as a U.S. Army combat infantry officer in Vietnam and graduated from the University of Southern California, according to a biography on his company���s website. He and his wife, Cheryl, had celebrated their 42nd anniversary on Feb. 12 and have two adult children, his brother-in-law, Jeff Osborn, told the AP in a phone interview. ������He was extremely remarkable person. I know it���s an old cliche, but he really did love life,������ he said. ������The world���s a lot smaller today for not having him here.������ Syed took Edwards��� BMW and next popped up at a Tustin business, where he shot and killed construction worker Jeremy Lewis, 26, of Fullerton. Lewis��� co-worker rushed to intervene and was shot in the arm, Jordan said. Syed took the second construction worker���s utility truck and fled to Orange, this time with California Highway Patrol officers in pursuit. He jumped from the moving truck at an intersection about five miles away, and shot himself in the head. Boy gives up gifts to help Lassen Park ANDERSON ��� A 7year-old Los Gatos boy has been appointed to the board of directors of the Lassen Park Foundation for an inspirational act of giving he has done on his last two birthdays. Zach Brunner has foregone receiving birthday presents and, instead, asked friends and family to donate money they would otherwise have spent on gifts to benefit Lassen Volcanic National Park. ���At its January meeting, the Lassen Park Foundation board of directors voted unanimously to appoint Zach to an honorary directorship on the board, both because of his unselfish generosity and because of his passion for Lassen,��� said board Chairman John Koeberer. ���This appointment is real. Zach is listed on our board and will be invited to attend any board meeting or foundation function that he wishes. We are particularly interested in hearing his thoughts on things we can do to make the park experience better for kids, to better reach atrisk children with our summer youth camping program and how what we do to help Lassen Volcanic can be improved.��� With this year���s dona- tion, Brunner wrote, ���Dear Lassen Park Rangers, At my birthday party, I raised $255 for the park. I hope you can use it to finish the trail to the top of the volcano. I hope I can visit Lassen, Manzanita Lake and Crags Lake this summer!��� ���It is extremely heartwarming to see a child so moved by the national park that he would give up his birthday presents to help with its preservation.,��� said Park Superintendent Darlene Koontz. ���It was an extraordinary act, by an extraordinary boy. Lassen Volcanic is in the process of converting its Crags Campground for use by youth groups. Founded in 1916, Lassen Volcanic contains all four types of volcanoes in the world, including active Lassen Peak and many geothermal sites. The Lassen Park Foundation is a nonprofit philanthropic organization that supports Lassen Volcanic National Park. More about the park and foundation is found at www.nps.gov/lavo and www.lassenparkfoundation.org. 8 DAYS LEFT TO VOTE! 741 Main Street, Suite #2 Red Bluff, CA 96080 1-800-287-2187 (530) 527-2187 C & C PROPERTIES An Independently owned and operated Member of Coldwell Banker Residential Affiliates. 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