Authorities announced this week that an unregistered “ghost gun” was used in a shooting at a Southern California high school that left two teenagers dead.
Nathaniel Tennosuke Berhow, 16, fatally shot two classmates last week at Saugus High School in Santa Clarita and injured three others before shooting himself with a 45-caliber semi-automatic handgun, according to authorities.
The gun does not have a serial number to track, Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva told KABC-TV on Thursday. Ghost guns, also known as “kit guns,” can be purchased online or at gun shows. They do not have serial numbers, nor are they registered.
“They’re also known as an 80 percent gun, so 80 percent of it is assembled already. You get the initial 20 percent, and they’re sold as a kit, and you can legally buy it, assemble the weapon yourself and you have a gun that is not registered and no one knows that you have it,” Villanueva told the news station.
He also said authorities found another unregistered kit gun at Berhow’s home when they searched it following the shooting. His father, now deceased, had six guns registered to him, Villanueva said, adding that they had been lawfully removed from the home and subsequently destroyed at an earlier point.
It is not known who purchased the gun’s parts or who assembled it, according to Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Lt. Brandon Dean, USA Today reported.
Villanueva said officers have interviewed more than 45 people about the shooting, but there is still no known motive.
“The ‘why?’ is still a mystery to this day,” he said.