A teenager walked into Chico's public library on Monday afternoon and opened fire, killing two men and wounding a child in a moment that shattered what residents thought could never happen in their community. Bradley Scott Sayer, 18, who had graduated from Chico High School just two weeks earlier, entered the facility shortly after 5 p.m. with a shotgun, firing multiple rounds before police arrived and took him into custody within four minutes.
The victims were identified as Robert Johnson, 74, of Orland, California, and Jacob Cody Hull, 46, of Chico. Hull died while protecting a seven-year-old girl he was with at the library. The child was injured in the shooting and later released from the hospital.
For a city of roughly 107,000 people, the library was far more than a building with books. It was the only public library serving Chico, a space where children attended story time, adults gathered for English conversation groups, and the homeless and underinsured found reliable internet access. After the 2018 Camp Fire destroyed nearby Paradise and killed 85 people, the library became a critical lifeline for displaced residents trying to navigate their new reality.
"It's unimaginable," said John Wollam, who has lived in Chico for 35 years. "I have family that lives in Vegas and they were there for the country music festival shooting. You never think something like this would happen in our community."
The horror unfolded during what branch director Kimberlee Wheeler described as a quiet time at the library, with most visitors already gone for the day. Sayer retrieved a shotgun from his car, fired at the entrance, then moved through the building unleashing additional shots. Staff members quickly responded by ushering patrons and families into locked workrooms, sheltering them from the violence.
Police Chief Billy Aldridge reported that dispatchers received multiple 911 calls capturing screaming and gunfire. Officers arrived in under two minutes and were filmed running toward the entrance. The entire incident, from the first emergency call to Sayer's arrest, took roughly four minutes.
Investigators later discovered that Sayer allegedly sought to replicate the 1999 Columbine High School massacre, in which two students killed 13 people. He wore a T-shirt bearing the words "natural selection," which authorities said referenced one of the Columbine shooters.
Hull's act of shielding the child did not go unnoticed in the grieving community. "Hero is the word that comes to mind," Wollam said. "He took Juniper into his life. She wasn't his daughter, but he treated her like I treat my daughter. And he ultimately gave his life protecting her."
For nearly a decade, Chico had endured proximity to catastrophe: multiple destructive wildfires and mass shootings in surrounding towns. Yet this was the first time gun violence had struck directly at the city's heart. On Tuesday evening, hundreds of residents gathered for vigils outside the library and at a local church. A local pastor sang while people stood beneath tall trees, seeking to comfort one another in shock.
"In a community this size, we're only a few degrees away from someone personally connected," said Richard Yale, former rector of St. John the Baptist church, who spoke at one vigil.
Wheeler, the library director, was moved to tears at the vigil but expressed faith in her staff's resilience. "There's a foundation of strength," she said. "Whether it's Covid, whether it's one of the many fires, I know that they have tremendous strength."
After the vigil, residents walked together around the library in an effort to reclaim the space from the horror that had unfolded inside. City councilor Addison Winslow noted that no single person had organized the gathering, yet people showed up anyway. The community's history of shared tragedy meant residents instinctively appeared for each other.
Wollam also extended compassion to the shooter's family. "As difficult as it is with the young man, the prayers are with his family because they're going through all of it right now too," he said. "They're not responsible for his actions."
The library itself bore visible scars: a board covering a shattered window, a folded rug in a hallway, an abandoned book bag by the door. From a distance, the building looked largely unchanged. Only up close did the traces of Monday's violence become apparent.
Author James Rodriguez: "Chico had weathered fires and distant tragedies, but this shooting proved no community is truly insulated from American gun violence, no matter how tight-knit or resilient."
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