CALIFORNIA: Four people were taken a life and just about a dozen were injured, including a number of children, when a gunman went on a rampage Tuesday at multiple locations, including a school in rural northern California.

Tehama County Assistant Sheriff Phil Johnston said, reporters, that the attacker was killed by cops following the mass shooting, that started around 8:00 am (1600 GMT) at a home in Rancho Tehama Reserve and sustained at a number of locations in the community, along with an elementary school.

Johnston said no children were among the dead.

"It was very clear at the arrival that we had an individual that was haphazardly picking targets," Johnston told at a news talks.

He further said a child was shot and wounded at the school. Another, he added, suffered non-life-threatening injuries while riding in a car with his mother, who was harshly injured.

Johnston told the gunmen, who have not been acknowledged, went on a shooting spree after thieving a vehicle that stopped at some point. He then stole a second motor vehicle and was killed in a shootout with police.

Jim Schultz, a reporter for the Redding Record Searchlight newspaper, asserted Rancho Tehama resident Salvador Tello, who was brought his three children to school and explained seeing the gunman opened fire, killing a woman.

"He told he saw bullets hit the truck in front of him and he put his children down to defend them and put his truck to... reverse," Schultz Twitted.

"As he left, he saw a woman lying deceased in the street and her... injured husband next to her. “