Teacher, boy die when husband opens fire in California class

A student who was evacuated after a shooting at North Park Elementary School is embraced after groups of them were reunited with parents waiting at a high school in San Bernardino, California, U.S. April 10, 2017. [Photo/Agencies]

SAN BERNARDINO — A man walked into his estranged wife's elementary school classroom in San Bernardino and opened fire without saying a word, killing her and an 8-year-old student before shooting himself in a murder-suicide that spread panic across a city still recovering emotionally from a terror attack just 15 months ago.

A 9-year-old student also was critically wounded. He and the boy who died were behind their special-education teacher, Karen Elaine Smith, 53, the target of the man she had married months earlier, police said.

The shooting left hundreds of distraught parents waiting for hours to reunite with their children.

Staffers knew Cedric Anderson, who had been estranged from his wife for about a month, and he got into the school by saying he had to drop something off for Smith, officials said.

"No one has come forward to say they saw this coming," police Chief Jarrod Burguan told reporters.

Anderson had a history of weapons, domestic violence and possible drug charges that predated the short marriage, authorities said.

He frequently wrote social media posts about his wife over the past month. On what appeared to be his Facebook page, Anderson said he "loved being married to Karen Smith-Anderson!" and posted a photo of the two of them on March 4 in what he described as a date night. He posted several photos of his wedding to Smith early this year and their honeymoon in Sedona, Arizona.

Smith's mother, Irma Sykes, said her daughter had been friends with Anderson for about four years before they got married, but separated from him after about a month because she saw "the real Cedric." She did not elaborate. Sykes told the Los Angeles Times her daughter was a mother of four who had been a teacher for 10 years.

Fifteen students ranging from first to fourth grade were in the special-education classroom at North Park Elementary School, along with two adult aides and Smith, when Anderson emptied a large-caliber revolver and reloaded. Then, he turned the gun on himself.

Marissa Perez, age 9, was in the classroom hiding under a table.