Who was the gunman at Northern California school? Sheriff says he had long criminal history

Mathew Miranda, The Sacramento Bee on Dec 5, 2024

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The man who shot two kindergartners before fatally shooting himself on Wednesday had a “lengthy criminal history” dating back decades in Northern California, authorities said.

Authorities identified the gunman Thursday afternoon following his lone role in the school shooting at a faith-based elementary school in Butte County. The incident unfolded at the Feather River Adventist School, located five miles south of Oroville and 56 miles north of Sacramento, and left two boys, 5 and 6 years old, with critical wounds.

The shooter was identified as 56-year-old Glenn Litton, Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said during a news conference. Honea and other law enforcement officials spent much of the conference going through Litton’s criminal history, which spanned more than three decades and multiple states. Litton was “best described as homeless” with “severe mental health issues” and had considered another school to target, according to officials.

He said Litton scheduled an appointment with the Feather River Adventist School principal under a false name to discuss enrolling his grandson as a student before the shooting. The meeting, which proceeded as “cordial,” was a “ruse,” Honea said.

“As it turned out, that was all a lie,” Honea said.

Litton had at least one another alias and was found with a fake driver’s license containing the name Michael Sanders and his photo during one of his prior arrests, said Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey.

“We have known Mr. Litton, also known as Mr. Williams, for a number of decades,” Ramsey said.

Ramsey said Litton’s run-in with law enforcement began in his teens, with what he called a “rather extensive juvenile history.” Those included several thefts, traffic violations and running from police. In 1984, Ramsey said Litton served in the California Division of Juvenile Justice — previously known as the California Youth Authority — for “harassing phone calls.”

As an adult, Ramsey said, Litton was charged with counts involving the cultivation of marijuana and petty theft. Litton served time in a California prison in 1991 and had his parole revoked three years later.

Litton fell off the local radar until 2002, when he was identified for several fraudulent credit card charges. He stole the IDs of “four to five” Butte County residents and used those to charge thousands of dollars on food, rent and entertainment, Ramsey said.

He was arrested in October 2002 at a local wig shop buying a disguise. During a search after his arrest, officers found handcuffs, a bulletproof vest, parts of a taser and website searches of guns and explosives.

“Notes in the computer to himself were fairly significant in terms of planning of some sort of mass incident involving explosives,” Ramsey said. “Nothing that was specific, no specific target, just ruminations.”

Litton was convicted in 2003 in Butte County Superior Court for counts of forgery, ID theft and theft. Those charges garnered him eight years in a California prison, Ramsey said.

Ramsey said he was released for reasons unknown to Butte County law enforcement.

Federal cases on Litton also date back to 2015, said Siddhartha “Sid” Patel, a special agent in charge of Sacramento’s FBI field office.

In August 2015, Litton pleaded guilty to aggravated identity theft for California residents. The following year, he pleaded guilty to the same charge to residents in Nevada. The people affected were predominantly inmates housed in both states, Patel said.

Litton served two years for the charges, Patel said.

Earlier this year, Litton came to attention of law enforcement yet again.

In March, he was the suspect of theft of roughly $1,166 in Phoenix, Arizona, while working at a CVS. Then in November, Litton was the suspect of a stolen vehicle in Chico, California. He rented a white U-Haul and did not return it, Ramsey said.

Litton was arrested later that month for the stolen U-Haul, being in possession of a forged license and an outstanding warrant in San Bernardino County for burglary. The forged license contained the name “Mike Sanders,” the name he later used to make an appointment at the Feather River Adventist School.

He plead not guilty to the charges that same month and was released. A family member transported him to Sacramento and Litton later took a bus to Chico, Ramsey said.

Thursday’s press conference also offered the first details behind the motive of Litton, who was born in Chico and attended Paradise Adventist School as a child, according to Honea.

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