Fifth Victim of Santa Monica Gunman Dies

Santa Monica College on Sunday announced the death of 26-year-old student Marcela Franco, the fifth victim of Friday’s shooting rampage to die .

Franco’s 68-year-old father, Carlos, a groundskeeper at the college, was also killed in Friday’s shootings. They were driving to the school when a gunman opened fire on them. Three others were also shot to death.

The gunman, John Zawahri, 23, was later killed by police during a confrontation in the college’s library.

Carlos Franco was driving Marcela to campus to buy books for her summer classes at the college when Zawahri fired at their Ford Explorer.

The elder Franco died at the scene.

Police said the 10-minute rampage began just before noon Friday at a house on Yorkshire Avenue that was set on fire. Authorities later found the bodies of the gunman’s father, Samir Zawahri, 55, and brother, Chris, 25, inside.

By the time police caught up with John Zawahri at the college library, killing him in a shootout, the gunman had slain an unidentified woman outside the building and wounded several others along the way. Law enforcement sources described Zawahri as an emotionally troubled person who armed himself with high-powered weapons and may have had up to 1,300 rounds of ammunition.

This article appeared in print on page 2 of the June 10th, 2013 edition of Hamodia.