Rifleman opens fire outside Granada Hills church

A rifleman opened fire at a festival outside a Granada Hills church this morning, wounding three people before an off-duty officer tackled the assailant, authorities said.

The shooting took place shortly before 11 a.m. at St. John Baptist de la Salle Catholic Church on the corner of Chatsworth Street and Hayvenhurst Avenue, said Los Angeles Police Officer Norma Eisenman.

The three victims were transported to local hospitals.

Police say the motive for the attack appears to be a custody dispute.

One of the victims was the rifleman’s 29-year-old live-in girlfriend. She was shot in the elbow and listed in stable condition. The woman’s son, 9, attended the festival and was unharmed. It was unclear whether the rifleman was the boy’s father, Eisenman said.

The two other victims were a 45-year-old man who was shot in the leg and a 43-year-old man who was shot in the chest. Both are in stable condition.

Eisenman said the gunman used a semiautomatic rifle.

After the initial shots, the assailant was subdued by bystanders, one of whom was an off-duty police officer, Eisenman said.

Witnesses told KABC-TV Channel 7 that the rifleman roamed around the festival before pulling the weapon out of a tennis bag. He then seemed to randomly open fire, witnesses said.

“We have a parent who apparently has a restraining order, and he came in, kissed his son and pulled an assault rifle out and shot three people,” parent Martinique Williams told Channel 7.

“I saw him come in with a tennis bag. I saw him go to the area and take the gun out and I saw him get the gun out and start shooting, and I saw the girl that got shot in the arm,” a young witness, Cassandra Reyes, told the station.

Father Robert Milbauer, the parish’s pastor, told the Associated Press that about 50 people, mainly church volunteers and their children, were busy setting up food and game booths and carnival-style rides when the gunfire erupted.

“I was walking toward the festival area to say an opening prayer and I saw them,” Milbauer said of the shooting victims.

The pastor told the Associated Press that the parish plans to go ahead with the festival on Sunday.

“We hope to be up and running and help people get beyond this,” he said.

Tod Tamberg, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, said the parish had 5,000 to 7,000 families and an affiliated school.

“It’s one of our larger parishes,” Tamberg said. “This is festival season.”

Tamberg, who used to attend the church and was on his way to the site, said the fair was most likely for parish fund-raising.

 david.pierson@latimes.com