On October 12, 2011, a

mass shooting A mass shooting is a violent crime in which one or more attackers use a firearm to Gun violence, kill or injure multiple individuals in rapid succession. There is no widely accepted specific definition, and different organizations tracking su ...

occurred at the Salon Meritage hair

salon Salon may refer to: Common meanings * Beauty salon A beauty salon or beauty parlor is an establishment that provides Cosmetics, cosmetic treatments for people. Other variations of this type of business include hair salons, spas, day spas, ...

Seal Beach, California Seal Beach is a coastal city in Orange County, California, United States. It was originally known as Bay City before it was incorporated into Orange County under its current on October 24, 1911. As of the 2020 census, the population was 25,242 ...

. Eight people inside the salon and one person in the parking lot were shot, and only one victim survived. It remains the deadliest mass killing in Orange County history. Scott Evans Dekraai, who was involved in a custody dispute with his ex-wife (one of the shooting victims), pleaded guilty to the shooting on May 2, 2014. On September 22, 2017, Dekraai was sentenced to eight terms of

life imprisonment without parole Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment under which the convicted individual is to remain incarcerated for the rest of their natural life (or until pardoned or commuted to a fixed term). Crimes that result in life imprisonment are co ...

and one term of seven years to life for attempted murder.

Shooting

On Wednesday, October 12, 2011, at 1:21 pm PDT (20:21

UTC Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is the primary time standard globally used to regulate clocks and time. It establishes a reference for the current time, forming the basis for civil time and time zones. UTC facilitates international communica ...

), police responded to reports of shots fired at the Salon Meritage hair salon at 500 Pacific Coast Highway.911 audio recordings capture the chaos inside Seal Beach salon
''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'', October 18, 2011. The shooter was armed with three handguns, and reloaded at least once during the attack, which lasted two minutes.Seal Beach shooting: 'This coward will be brought to justice'
''

'', October 14, 2011. There were about twenty people in the salon at the time, some managing to escape by running into the street or hiding in neighboring businesses. Six people were declared dead at the scene, and three survivors were taken to a hospital where two of them later died of their wounds. Police later named the weapons used in the shooting as a

9mm This is a list of firearm cartridges that have bullets in the to caliber In guns, particularly firearms, but not #As a measurement of length, artillery, where a different definition may apply, caliber (or calibre; sometimes abbreviate ...

Springfield, a .45-caliber

Heckler & Koch Heckler & Koch GmbH (HK or H&K; ) is a German firearms manufacturer that produces handguns, rifles, submachine guns, and grenade launchers. The company is located in Oberndorf am Neckar, Baden-Württemberg and also has subsidiaries in the United ...

, and a .44 Magnum

Smith & Wesson Model 29 The Smith & Wesson Model 29 is a six-shot, double-action revolver chambered for the .44 Magnum cartridge and manufactured by the United States company Smith & Wesson. The Model 29 was offered with barrels as standard models. Other barrel leng ...

. The shooter's former wife, Michelle Fournier, one of the employees at the salon, was one of the victims. The suspect in the shooting, named by police as 41-year-old Scott Evans Dekraai of

Huntington Beach, California Huntington Beach is a seaside city in Orange County, California, United States. The city was originally called Pacific City, but it was changed in 1903 to be named after American businessman Henry E. Huntington. The population was 198,711 as of ...

, was arrested without incident after being stopped while driving a white pickup truck about one half-mile (0.8 km) from the scene of the crime.Gunman kills 8 at Seal Beach salon
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'', October 12, 2011. Dekraai was wearing

body armor Body armour, personal armour (also spelled ''armor''), armoured suit (''armored'') or coat of armour, among others, is armour for human body, a person's body: protective clothing or close-fitting hands-free shields designed to absorb or deflect ...

at the time of his arrest. The incident was the worst mass murder in Orange County, surpassing the Fullerton massacre in July 1976, in which seven people died. There had been only one murder in Seal Beach during the previous four years. A candlelight

vigil A vigil, from the Latin meaning 'wakefulness' ( Greek: , or ), is a period of purposeful sleeplessness, an occasion for devotional watching, or an observance. The Italian word has become generalized in this sense and means 'eve' (as in "on t ...

was held in the evening of the next day for the victims of the shooting.Seal Beach shooting: More than 1,000 attend emotional vigil
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'', October 13, 2011. A fund set up to aid victims of the shooting raised around $400,000. A remodeled Salon Meritage reopened under the same name on November 18, 2012.

Victims

Dekraai killed six women and two men. One other woman was also shot but survived. The victims were: * Victoria Buzzo, 54, who worked at the salon. * David Caouette, 64, was killed while sitting in his

Land Rover Discovery The Land Rover Discovery is a series of five or seven-seater family SUVs, produced under the Land Rover marque, from the British manufacturer Land Rover, and later Jaguar Land Rover. The series is currently in its fifth iteration (or generat ...

parked outside the salon. Caouette was the final victim, and was shot through the front windshield and passenger window of his vehicle. He had been visiting the restaurant next to the salon. * Randy Lee Fannin, 62, the owner of Salon Meritage; according to eyewitnesses, he was the first person to be shot. He reportedly said to Dekraai: "Please don't do this. There's another way. Let's go outside and talk."Seal Beach shooting: Scott Dekraai charged with murder

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, October 14, 2011. * Michele Daschbach Fast, 47, a customer who was having her hair styled at the salon. * Michelle Marie Fournier, 48, who worked as a hair stylist at the salon and was the shooter's ex-wife. * Lucia Bernice Kondas, 65, a customer who was having her hair styled at the salon. * Laura Webb, 46, worked at the salon and was doing her mother's hair at the time of the incident; her mother, Hattie Stretz, 73, was shot and critically injured. * Christy Lynn Wilson, 47, who worked at the salon. Wilson testified in a court custody hearing on behalf of Fournier the day before the shooting spree. * Hattie Stretz, 73, was critically injured when a singular bullet went through her arm and her upper chest, but she survived the shooting, and was released from the hospital on October 17. She was a customer having her hair done by her daughter, Laura Webb, one of the stylists who died in the shooting. Sandy Fannin, co-owner of the salon and wife of Randy Fannin, was on the premises at the time of the shooting but survived unharmed by hiding at the back of the property.

Perpetrator

Scott Evans Dekraai (born October 17, 1969) divorced his wife Michelle in 2007 after four years of marriage. Court records showed that he had been engaged in a bitter

custody dispute Child custody is a legal term regarding '' guardianship'' which is used to describe the legal and practical relationship between a parent or guardian and a child in that person's care. Child custody consists of ''legal custody'', which is the rig ...

over his eight-year-old son. His personality was said to have changed after an accident on board a

tugboat A tugboat or tug is a marine vessel that manoeuvres other vessels by pushing or pulling them, with direct contact or a tow line. These boats typically tug ships in circumstances where they cannot or should not move under their own power, suc ...

in February 2007, which left him with serious leg injuries. Following an incident later in 2007 involving his stepfather, a

restraining order A restraining order or protective order is an order used by a court to protect a person in a situation often involving alleged domestic violence, child abuse and neglect, assault, harassment, stalking, or sexual assault. Restraining and perso ...

was filed against him, barring him from possessing firearms. The order lasted a year and had expired at the time of the shooting. Court documents filed in September 2008 diagnosed him with

PTSD Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental disorder that develops from experiencing a traumatic event, such as sexual assault, domestic violence, child abuse, warfare and its associated traumas, natural disaster, traffic collision, ...

. A court hearing had taken place on October 11, 2011, the day before the shooting, which recommended a near-equal custody arrangement.Seal Beach shooting: Suspect suffered PTSD from boat injury
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'', October 13, 2011.Seal Beach shooting suspect was a haunted man
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'', October 13, 2011.Poor decisions shadowed salon shooting suspect

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...

, October 15, 2011.

Prosecution

Orange County

District Attorney In the United States, a district attorney (DA), county attorney, county prosecutor, state attorney, state's attorney, prosecuting attorney, commonwealth's attorney, or solicitor is the chief prosecutor or chief law enforcement officer represen ...

Tony Rackauckas Anthony Joseph Rackauckas Jr. (born March 18, 1943) is a former District Attorney of Orange County, California, and a former Superior Court judge. After losing his reelection bid for a sixth term as Orange County DA in 2018, Rackauckas has com ...

announced on October 14, 2011, that Dekraai would be charged with eight counts of

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse committed with the necessary Intention (criminal law), intention as defined by the law in a specific jurisd ...

with special circumstances, and one of attempted murder. He also indicated that his office would seek the

death penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence ordering that an offender be punished in s ...

. In a news conference following the shooting, Rackauckas said: "For almost two minutes, Dekraai shot victim after victim, executing eight people by shooting them in the head and chest. He was not done. He then walked out of the salon and shot a ninth victim, a man, who was sitting nearby in a parked Range Rover." In an

affidavit An ( ; Medieval Latin for "he has declared under oath") is a written statement voluntarily made by an ''affiant'' or ''deposition (law), deponent'' under an oath or affirmation which is administered by a person who is authorized to do so by la ...

submitted to police, Dekraai said that he first shot his ex-wife multiple times on entering the salon, contradicting the view of eyewitnesses inside the salon who said that salon owner Randy Fannin was the first victim. Dekraai said that on the morning of the shooting, he had argued with his ex-wife over the telephone, causing him to consider killing her. He also said that David Caouette – an apparently random victim sitting in his parked car outside the salon – had been shot because he thought that he was "an off-duty or undercover police officer". Dekraai's

arraignment Arraignment is a formal reading of a criminal charging document in the presence of the defendant, to inform them of the criminal charges against them. In response to arraignment, in some jurisdictions, the accused is expected to enter a plea; i ...

took place on November 29, 2011, at which he entered a plea of not guilty.Accused Seal Beach salon shooter Scott Dekraai pleads not guilty
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'', November 30, 2011. The start date for the trial, originally scheduled for March 25, 2013, was postponed until November 2013 to allow defense attorneys to review recordings obtained by a prison informant. The trial was postponed again until March 24, 2014. Dekraai pleaded guilty to the shooting on May 2. The punishment phase of his trial was scheduled for August 18. In March 2015, the Orange County District Attorney's Office was removed from the case following a ruling by Judge Thomas Goethals that the office had violated Dekraai's rights by improperly withholding evidence from the defense. Goethals assigned

California Attorney General The attorney general of California is the state attorney general of the government of California. The officer must ensure that "the laws of the state are uniformly and adequately enforced" (Constitution of California, Article V, Section 13). The ...

Kamala Harris Kamala Devi Harris ( ; born October 20, 1964) is an American politician and attorney who served as the 49th vice president of the United States from 2021 to 2025 under President Joe Biden. She is the first female, first African American, and ...

to take over the prosecution. Harris's office announced its intention to appeal the decision, leading to a delay in the sentencing."O.C. salon murder case stalls as D.A. office's removal is appealed"
''

'', March 21, 2015. In August 2017, Goethals ruled that Dekraai was ineligible to receive the death penalty due to the purported prosecutorial misconduct in the case. Dekraai was sentenced to eight terms of

and one term of seven years to life for attempted murder.

Memorial

A memorial commemorating the victims of the shooting was built in Eisenhower Park in Seal Beach in 2015.

References

External links

Image gallery of the scene of the shooting
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'', October 13, 2011.
Slayings pierce Seal Beach's sense of safety
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'', October 14, 2011.
To the chaos in Seal Beach, firefighters bring focus, skill and heart
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'', October 20, 2011.
Seal Beach salon shooting site remains closed 3 months later
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Daily Breeze The ''Daily Breeze'' is a 57,000-circulation daily newspaper published in Hermosa Beach, California, United States. It serves the South Bay cities of Los Angeles County. Its slogan is "LAX to LA Harbor". Early history The paper was found ...

'', January 8, 2012.
City to Design Memorial for Shooting Victims Overlooking the Ocean
LosAlamitos-SealBeachPatch, February 28, 2012.

''

NBC News NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Media Group, a division of NBCUniversal, which is itself a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's various operations r ...

'', March 23, 2012. {{DEFAULTSORT:Seal Beach shooting, 2011 2011 crimes in California 2011 murders in the United States 2011 mass shootings in the United States Attacks on buildings and structures in California Mass murder in 2011 Mass murder in California Mass shootings in California Attacks on buildings and structures in 2011 Deaths by firearm in California Seal Beach, California 2010s in Orange County, California October 2011 crimes in the United States Mass murder in the United States in the 2010s