The alleged gunman in the Kelly Elementary shooting had a license for his .357 Magnum handgun, according to Carlsbad police.
Brendan O'Rourke, 41, was a licensed security guard. O'Rourke's security patrol license, or guard card, isn't set to expire until January 2011, according to the California State Department of Affairs.
O'Rourke, 41, was arrested Friday after witnesses say he emptied his gun into a crowd of children, hitting two girls with bullets and sending other children running for their lives.
Police believe four to six shots were fired. The gun was registered to O'Rourke but investigators were unsure where he obtained it, Carlsbad police Chief Gary Morrison said.
Morrison said O'Rourke told detectives he had considered other schools for the attack but decided on Kelly, although investigators did not immediately know why.
"He kind of rambles," Morrison said.
O'Rourke was licensed to be a security guard in California, though he was not working as one. He was working for a telemarketing company and had no previous criminal record, the police chief said.
Carlsbad police Lt. Kelly Cain said O'Rourke gave the officers three different names when he was arrested, including a woman's name, which Cain said raises obvious questions about the man's mental state.
A local psychiatrist gave perspective into what may have caused O'Rourke's violent acts.
"Almost always, people that end up with violent behavior have had early childhood trauma," Clark Smith said. "Many people are mentally ill but do not turn to violence. There are additional factors -- like childhood abuse or deprivation or neglect -- that lead to the sense that they have no connections in the community, they have no support, they have no other way out than their violent behavior."
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A visit to O'Rourke's home in Oceanside, showed he liked to scrawl messages on his bedroom walls; seen from outside the window, one wall reads “Christians,” the other “to destroy it."
Neighbors describe O'Rourke as a loner who would yell obscenities in the middle of the night.
“The noise was pretty much a lot of banging. Banging on the walls,” said neighbor Victoria Sanchez. “Never saw any friends, any family.”
The manager of O'Rourke's Oceanside apartment complex, Canyon Creek Apartments, recently gave him an eviction notice, giving him three months to move out, according to Sanchez.
Neighbors said O'Rourke about a week ago, it seemed like he stop going to work.
“His car would always be gone from 8 to 4, and I saw the car there the whole week, and I was like, 'That's weird. He's not working,' ” Sanchez said.
Investigators said they don't have a motive for the shooting.
“I still can't believe it. It's like a dream,” said O’Rourke’s neighbor next-door neighbor Chris Garruto.
O'Rourke is being held at the Vista Detention center without bail. He's scheduled to make his first court appearance on Wednesday. He will face six counts of attempted murder.
