Bradley Scott Sayer, 18, posted a video at 4:49 p.m., declaring his intention to “shoot as many people as possible” at a Chico library, minutes before he is alleged to have killed two library patrons, said Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey.
Ramsey spoke to the press after Sayer’s June 25 arraignment at Butte County Superior Court, where the young Chico man was charged with two counts of first degree murder with special circumstances. The hearing was continued and Sayer has not yet entered a plea.
Sayer is accused of killing two people — 74-year-old Robert Johnson and 46-year-old Jacob “Cody” Hull — in what police say was an attempted “Columbine massacre” inspired killing at the Chico library on June 22. Hull’s niece suffered minor injuries from what police said was broken glass.
Ramsey said Sayer had been on a years-long path down a “rabbit hole” in chat forums, where people obsess and glorify mass shootings, particularly that of Columbine High School in 1999.
Ramsey said Sayer was an active member of chat forums that engaged in an “ideation” and “admiration” of mass shooters. Officials have sought warrants for the collection of “massive amounts” of online chat records connected to Sayer, with some tracing back years, Ramsey told reporters.
These chat sites “share information, share photos of bodies, bodies that have been shot. It is a very dark area of the internet,” Ramsey said. He later added that there was “no further danger” locally. Federal law enforcement partners have search warrants for the websites.
During the arraignment, Sayer flashed a hand symbol sometimes associated with white power groups. Ramsey told ChicoSol that while Sayer had been a member of a chatroom where such ideologies were being discussed, it was premature to assert that Sayer identifies or identified with white supremacy.
Sayer is being represented by Roberto Marquez, an attorney based in Marysville. Marquez hadn’t responded to a ChicoSol request for comment by time of publication.
He is being held in Butte County Jail in isolation and without bail. Ramsey said prosecutors aren’t seeking the death penalty.
Sayer is the youngest of three children. He was diagnosed with autism and received services from Chico Unified School District, along with court-ordered counseling, according to court documents filed during his parents’ divorce.
In those court documents, Angela Ravetz, an intervention specialist at Bidwell Junior High School, submitted a letter. She said Sayer “has always been a happy boy and full of information ready to share with others.” But in early January 2021, she said he changed and became more reserved and unwilling to share.
Reporters were initially told that Johnson was outside the library when he was shot twice. However, today Ramsey corrected that, explaining that Hull and his niece were outside the library, and Johnson was inside the building reading a book.
Library staff helped “shepherd about half the people who were in the library into a back room …” — DA Ramsey
Ramsey said Hull was with his 7-year-old niece, and they had picked up books and were walking out when Sayer shot Hull in the leg, and then shot him “close range in the head.”
The girl was taken to Enloe Medical Center with minor injuries and discharged the next day.
Officers arrived minutes after an open 911 call, where dispatchers could hear screaming and gunfire. “He was shooting randomly at patrons and children that were running and screaming for their lives,” Ramsey said.
Library staff helped “shepherd about half the people who were in the library into a back room and locked the door so that he could not get to them,” Ramsey said.
Sayer “was striking kitchen matches in an attempt to light the library on fire,” Ramsey said.
Ramsey said Sayer put a round in the shotgun “allegedly with the attempt to commit suicide.”
The rifle round fell out of the shotgun, Ramsey said, and then “he went outside and surrendered.”
Two .22 caliber rifles were found in his car, Ramsey said. The shotgun and rifles were owned by his father, David Sayer, and held in his father’s closet. Ramsey couldn’t confirm whether the guns were held in the safe. Sayer and his father had attended a “general gun safety training,” the DA said.
Benjamin Heneberry, the brother of Hull, told ChicoSol that he had been seeing a lot of anger directed at Sayer’s parents. He said he doesn’t blame the parents. “It was him who pulled the trigger and killed my brother,” he said.
He asked the community to not harass the Sayer family.
The defendant, who was staying with his father at the time, had no apparent connection to the Chico library. Ramsey claims that Sayer was seeking out a populated place for the shooting.
In several text message interviews with ChicoSol, past classmates, who followed or were followed by Sayer on social media, described Sayer as isolated and often difficult to communicate with. One person said he often sat alone, reading books and was “very much into his grades.”
During his parents’ divorce proceeding in 2022, a judge ordered Sayer to have “individual counseling with the focus on his social issues, his isolation and withdrawal tendencies and the impact of his neuroatypical development on his behavior and functioning.”
Ramsey said the investigation is ongoing as interviews and evidence collection are still underway. Investigators have obtained Sayer’s journal, which prosecutors hope will provide clues to the suspect’s motives.
Chris Hutton and Elias S. Myers are ChicoSol contributors.