Cupertino quarry shooting suspect who killed 3, wounded 7 still on loose

Schools are on lockdown, SWAT teams are dashing door to door and armed police are standing at alert on neighborhood corners along the Cupertino-Sunnyvale border as an intense hunt continues Wednesday morning for a man suspected of a shooting rampage that began at a Cupertino quarry, leaving three people dead and six injured.

A seventh victim -- a woman -- was shot and injured nearby when the suspect tried to commandeer her car.

The suspect, identified as a heavy equipment operator at Lehigh Southwest Cement Permanente Plant, fled on foot into the neighborhood around Homestead Road and Tantau Avenue where the manhunt, including helicopters and dogs, began.

The motive is uncertain, but those who know suspect, Shareef Allman, 47, couldn't be more shocked. Along with his day job at the quarry, Allman produced a community TV show called "Real 2 Real" for CreaTV in San Jose and was "spreading the word on non-violence," said Suzanne St. John-Crane, CreaTV's executive director. He was a mediator. He's just a person that would try to resolve conflict. I just can't believe it."

He also has written a book called "Amazing Grace," a book intended to empower women against domestic violence. Rose Douglas, a neighbor of Allman's at the Stonegate apartment complex on Renaissance Drive in north San Jose, said Allman had been upset recently because he had been moved from the day shift to the night shift, which interfered with his plans to spend more time with his daughter.

Santa Clara Police Sgt. Ray Carreira said Wednesday morning that police believe they have Allman "contained" in the area of Homestead and Tantau. Police, with guns drawn, were seen moving in on a house on Lorne Way.

"He is armed and dangerous," Santa Clara County sheriff's Sgt. Jose Cardoza said.

At the cement plant, relatives of workers gathered in hopes that their loved ones survived the shooting. At midmorning, with dozens of family members and media gathered, one woman let out a scream and fainted backwards.

At 4:30 a.m., armed with a handgun and a rifle, the suspect interrupted a meeting on the property, where the bloodbath began.

One of the shooting victims was taken to Stanford Medical Center, two were taken to Santa Clara Valley Medical Center. Both are male, one in good condition, one in fair condition.

Schools in the area scrambled to keep their students safe and inform parents whether to keep the children at home.

Laurelwood Elementary School evacuated at 7:45 a.m. and the school remained on "code blue" alert, according to teacher aide Eric Guzman. Good Samaritan Preschool on Homestead Road had children in lockdown with a staffer posted at every door, school director

Loretta Wong said. "All the children who are here are safe," she said.

Other Cupertino Union School District schools remained opened because many of the children were already on their way to school when the news was breaking and their parents might have left for work, said spokesman Jeremy Nishihara. School, he said, "Is the safest place for them to be."

Fremont Union High School District sent an emergency e-mail between 7:15 and 7:30 this morning, telling parents of its 10,400 students to keep them home from school. But by then, "a lot of kids were on their way to school," said Graham Clark, principal of Homestead High School in Cupertino. Only about 25 percent of Homestead's 2,235 students showed up for class, he said. Campuses are open and accepting students. Homestead has not been in lockdown, Clark said, but plans to keep students inside classrooms during tutorial --- an instructional time just after first period.

Allman's neighbors at Stonegate apartments describe Allman as a likeable, sharp-dressed guy, a single parent who goes to church and works out a lot. Several said he was a former semi-professional boxer. Neighbors said they never saw him do anything violent. All were shocked to hear he is a suspect in a mass shooting.

Neighbor Albert Salazar, 51, says he's known Allman a long time. He spoke to him three days ago and didn't notice anything unusual. They talked about growing up under hard circumstances and how they turned their lives around.

"It makes no sense," Salazar said. "Nobody can understand what happened. He must have snapped. I couldn't believe it when I heard it was him this morning."

Wayne Riley went to high school with Allman's daughter. "He was a good parent. He was always doing something to take care of his kids," Riley said. "I do not know what happened."

Paulette Conner, another neighbor, said Allman was having problems at work, but she didn't know exactly what.

A lot of his neighbors used to watch his cable show and saw him as a successful entrepreneur.

In a videotaped interview with CreaTV, Allman talked about his book.

"It's fiction but deals with people I've met throughout my life," Allman said in the interview. "I'm a father and raised a daughter from birth, and growing up in that type of environment and seen men abuse women, I said I can do something as an individual to make a difference."

As a host of Real 2 Real, Allman would interview divergent groups, said St. John-Crane, and encourage them to get along. He was not an employee of the station, but one of 130 community producers who turned in a show to air on the channel.