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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
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Seven Life Sentences for University Mass Shooting

A former nursing student who shot and killed seven people at Oikos University in Oakland has been sentenced to life in prison without parole for the massacre.

OAKLAND, Calif. (CN) – A former nursing student who shot and killed seven people at Oikos University in Oakland has been sentenced to life in prison without parole for the massacre.

One Goh, 48, pleaded no contest on Tuesday in Alameda County Superior Court to seven counts of murder and three counts of attempted murder in the 2012 shooting rampage.

Prosecutors say they will not pursue the death penalty against Goh, who was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.

"Taking into account loss of life, the violent actions of the defendant, as well as information regarding the defendant’s mental illness, we believe that the sentence is appropriate," Alameda County prosecutors said in a statement Tuesday.

Goh killed seven people and wounded three others when he opened fire in a classroom on the morning of April 2, 2012.

The Korean citizen had dropped out of nursing school at Oikos, a small private Christian college, months before the rampage, and had demanded a refund of his tuition.

When he didn't get it, he took a .45-caliber semi-automatic pistol and three loaded magazines to the college to kill an administrator. But the administrator no longer worked at the school, so Goh forced a receptionist into a classroom at gunpoint and shot her and nine former classmates before fleeing. He was arrested a short time later in nearby Alameda.

Goh confessed to the shootings, but was declared incompetent to stand trial in 2013 and ordered hospitalized at Napa State Hospital. Alameda County Superior Court Judge Gloria Rhynes affirmed the finding two years later after Goh's doctors testified that he did not understand the proceedings against him.

Goh was declared competent to stand trial earlier this month following four years of mental-health treatment at Napa.

"The enormity and devastation of this mass shooting remains unprecedented in Alameda County," Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley said in a statement Tuesday. "With the conclusion of this case, we know that One Goh will never again be in the position to harm any member of our community."

Goh will receive seven consecutive life terms in prison without parole, plus an additional 271 years.

A sentencing hearing is set for July 14.

Categories / Criminal

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