San Bernardino shooting survivor says attackers fired at random, paused to reload

Survivors leave the office building in San Bernardino.

(Image credit: Frederic J. Brown/Getty Images)

published 3 December 2015

One of the survivors of Wednesday's mass shooting in San Bernardino, California, said the shooters fired for 30 seconds at random, attacking people inside a holiday party.

Relatives of Denise Peraza, 27, told the Los Angeles Times she called to share details on the shooting, which killed at least 14 people at the Inland Regional Center Wednesday morning. Peraza said the doors opened and two men dressed in black wearing face masks entered, carrying "big 'ol guns." They began to shoot at random, and one paused to reload. "Everyone dropped to the floor," Peraza said. She hid under a desk, and was shot once in the lower back. After the shooters left, it was quiet for five minutes, and then law enforcement arrived and asked those who could move to leave the building immediately.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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