The Brief

Authorities are investigating what may have prompted a former police sergeant to open fire in a popular Orange County bar on Wednesday, killing at least three people and injuring six others.

Authorities said the shooter was also killed within minutes of sheriff's deputies arriving at Cook’s Corner, and on Thursday, gave more details about how the incident unfolded.

What we know so far

• O.C. sheriff's deputies responded to the shooting shortly after 7 p.m. at Cook’s Corner, a historic biker bar in Trabuco Canyon at 19152 Santiago Canyon Road.

• Orange County Undersheriff Jeff Hallock said deputies responded to 911 calls at 7:04 p.m. Two minutes later, he said the deputies arrived, and two minutes after that, confronted the shooter. At that point, Hallock said multiple "deputy-involved shootings" occurred.
• Of the six victims who were transported to the hospital, all have been stabilized and one was due to be released, medical officials said.
• M Street band member Brian Lynch said in a Facebook post that two fellow band members had been injured in the shooting and were treated by paramedics.
• O.C. District Attorney Todd Spitzer identified the shooter as John Snowling, a retired sergeant for the Ventura Police Department. Officials said he had three handguns and one shotgun.
• Snowling’s wife, Marie Snowling, filed for divorce against him this December in a case that is still ongoing, according to the Ventura County court website.
• The sheriff's department said investigators believe John Snowling "drove from Ohio to California to target his wife over a domestic dispute."
• A Ventura County Sheriff’s Department spokesperson told LAist there are no previous domestic violence calls or restraining orders in their files regarding Snowling. The department is the police agency for the city of Camarillo, where the couple lived.
• State Sen. Dave Min, who represents that area, said in a statement that he was “devastated by news of yet another mass shooting tonight,” particularly in Orange County. Supervisor Katrina Foley also said she was "heartbroken to hear of another senseless mass shooting, this time in our own backyard.”

Law enforcement personnel stage at the scene of a mass shooting outside Cook's Corner, Thursday, Aug. 24, 2023, in Trabuco Canyon.

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Jae C. Hong

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AP

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More on the incident

Spitzer told LAist on Thursday that at some point after Snowling began shooting, he retreated to his car and retrieved additional weapons. Spitzer said Snowling appeared to have targeted some people, but "he apparently was also shooting randomly.”

Spitzer said it was still unclear whether Snowling was killed by officers or if he killed himself.

“There appears to have been a gun battle,” Spitzer said.

Speaking at a news conference Thursday afternoon, Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes said a deputy-involved shooting occurred, and that "we do know and do believe that it was the gunfire from those deputies that took the life of that individual."  

Marie Snowling, meanwhile, “is conscious and is speaking so her status seems to be improving somewhat significantly,” Barnes added.

Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes addresses the media on Thursday, Aug. 24, for updates on the Cook's Corner shooting.

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Julia Barajas/LAist

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The district attorney noted that federal law allows most retired law enforcement officials to carry guns “essentially for life.” Spitzer said that following the Wednesday night shooting, he would be urging state legislators to consider an “intermittent review process” to determine whether retired officers should continue to be allowed to carry guns throughout their retirement.

“Because if somebody retires at 50 years of age or thereabout, and then they are in their 60s and there’s a change in circumstance in their life, their status, their psychological well-being or whatever, they should have to check in and somebody should be determining whether or not [they] should be allowed to continue to carry a weapon,” he added.

Snowling served as president of the Ventura police union in 2009 and was reportedly re-elected to the position that year.

The dead victims

Authorities released more information about the people who were shot and killed, but remained vague on details. Among them was John Leehey, 67, of Irvine, and Glen Sprowl Jr., 53, of Stanton.

Tonya Clark, a 49-year-old resident of Scottsdale, Arizona, was eating dinner with Marie Snowling when shots rang out. After being hit by gunfire, Clark was able to escape to the roadway outside, but succumbed to her wounds, officials said.

Reaction from shooter's attorney

John Snowling’s attorney told LAist he was horrified by the shooting, and that there was no hint of domestic violence in the divorce filings or his conversations with his client.

“This is an absolute nightmare,” Tristan teGroen said in an interview, adding that his thoughts are with the couple’s adult children.

“I’m stunned. I’m horrified,” he added. “This seemed to be a very calm divorce case.”

“There was never the prospect of domestic violence whatsoever,” teGroen added. “I never received anything from the other lawyer saying that my client was threatening or mean or doing anything that might be considered violence.”

An attorney for Snowling’s estranged wife did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

What's next

• Authorities said the sprawling crime scene will be closed for the foreseeable future, with investigators processing the area into the night.

Location of shooting

Resources for dealing with trauma

Resources for anyone in crisis

How we're reporting on this

This is a developing story. We fact check everything and rely only on information from credible sources (think fire, police, government officials and reporters on the ground). Sometimes, however, we make mistakes and/or initial reports turn out to be wrong. In all cases, we strive to bring you the most accurate information in real time and will update this story as new information becomes available.

Beyond the Rose Bowl and historic bungalows, Pasadena has stranger tales to tell. David Kalbeitzer has been seeking out those stories where rocket science meets the occult and ghosts haunt the city’s grandest buildings.

For Kalbeitzer, a Disney executive who investigates the paranormal in his free time, his fascination with the city’s mysterious side started when he bought a Victorian north of Old Town.

He sensed a spirit at the open house a dozen years ago and took it as a reason to move his family to Pasadena. Then he started learning the city’s history.

David Kalbeitzer, a paranormal investigator from Pasadena, is giving a talk about the city's strange history Saturday night in Old Town.

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Courtesy of David Kalbeitzer

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“I realized, ‘Oh, this place called us just as much as we were looking for it,’” he said.

On Saturday night, he’s sharing the lore he’s collected at Mesmer Mesmer an Old Town shop and event space. While the event is full, there’s a waitlist, and more talks featuring Kalbeitzer are in the works.

A city of ghost stories 

Ask Kalbeitzer about haunted Pasadena, and the list stretches from alleyways to the Colorado Street Bridge to Castle Green, the turreted former hotel overlooking Central Park.

“The Pasadena Playhouse theater is, you know, very haunted,” he added.

He says theatergoers have reported hearing disembodied voices.

Theatergoers over the years have described hearing voices and seeing apparitions at the Pasadena Playhouse.

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Jeff Lorch

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Courtesy of Pasadena Playhouse

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“And you look, and there’s no one there, or apparitions that have been seen sort of standing in the corner, and then you walk up, and they kind of disappear like shadowy figures,” he said.

As for the spirit that helped draw him to his current Pasadena home?

Kalbeitzer says she’s still around — and his psychic friend Michael Kouri shared her name: Dolores.

“It’s actually haunted by a very kind ghost that looks out for the house, protects my family and has been able to activate our alarm,” he said.

Having a Dolores in the house might send some people running, but Kalbeitzer said he grew up in a haunted house in Idaho Falls, Idaho.

And when his family moved to Charleston, South Carolina, a teenage Kalbeitzer started seeking out places known for paranormal activity.

Rocket science, ritual magic and mind-reading

Having lived in different neighborhoods in L.A., Kalbeitzer says there’s something uniquely otherworldly about Pasadena — and it goes beyond ghost stories.

He said the city has an energy that draws people exploring the unknown, perhaps most famously Jack Parsons.

The rocket pioneer who helped launch the Jet Propulsion Laboratory also practiced ritual magic at his Pasadena home with the likes of L. Ron Hubbard before he founded Scientology.

“Many people call it the occult," Kalbeitzer said. "I don’t know that I fully subscribe to that, but there is spiritualism and occult mixed in there."

Then there was Upton Sinclair, the muckraking author of The Jungle, whose interests while living in Pasadena extended to telepathy and séances.

Upton Sinclair, pictured with his wife Mary Craig Sinclair in 1935, several years after he published a book examining her reported telepathy.

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Los Angeles Times via Wikimedia Commons

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In 1930, Sinclair published Mental Radio, a book about experiments in mind-reading. Albert Einstein provided a preface. Yes, that Einstein, who would spend the following winter at Caltech expanding on the theories of relativity and cosmology.

“It’s the craziest mixture of things that were happening at that time and all of it at the same time,” Kalbeitzer said.

A presence in the shop 

The event couldn’t have found a more appropriate venue.

Since opening five months ago in Old Town, Mesmer Mesmer has embraced the dark and mysterious, offering tarot and crystal readings and hosting events on subjects such as hip-hop’s relationship with ghosts.

Tyke O'Brien opened her shop Mesmer Mesmer earlier this year to create a third space and offer books and esoterica alongside clothing.

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Tyke O'Brien

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At that event, a medium told owner Tyke O’Brien she could sense a presence in the shop, which formerly housed a bridal store.

“She goes, ‘Do you ever feel it?’ And I’m like, ‘I am such a bummer,” O’Brien recounted. “I wish I could say yes."

The same can be said for this writer who’s lived and worked in and around Pasadena for years without so much as a brush with the otherworldly.

Kalbeitzer, on the other hand, reports supernatural encounters all around town.

“Everyone has the ability to have those experiences," he said. "But I do think how you see yourself in the world has a lot more to do with it, and whether you want to have those experiences."

Los Angeles officials expect construction of a fence around MacArthur Park will start in November and continue through fall 2027. 

At a community meeting Thursday night at MacArthur Park Elementary School, officials said fence installation is now expected to continue through fall 2027, overshooting the previously announced spring 2027 completion date.

Thursday’s meeting highlighted the divide over the city’s plan to fence off MacArthur Park, with tensions rising during public comment. The Los Angeles Police Department says the fence will make drug enforcement easier, while some in the community who volunteer around the park questioned whether it will improve safety enough to justify the cost.

The city has allocated $2.3 million for the project, but officials have not said whether that will cover the full cost.

Installation of the green metal fence around the park’s perimeter is expected to begin in November and take about a year. A second phase, adding decorative elements to the fence, is planned for fall and winter 2027. Officials said the schedule could change because of weather or other unforeseen circumstances.

The park is expected to remain open during construction.

Capt. Ben Fernandes with the LAPD’s Rampart Division said the fence would create a barrier along Alvarado Street and other areas where officers have seen people using narcotics. That would allow police to focus more of their enforcement efforts inside the park, he said.

“So if people are going deeper into the park to use, that’ll make it easier for us to go in and do enforcement on them and arrest them for that use,” Fernandes said. 

MacArthur Park will close every night once an 8-foot-tall fence goes up around the green space, with Los Angeles police officers sweeping the park for encampments and people sleeping there before the gates shut. The Board of Recreation and Park Commissioners approved the plan Thursday.

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LA Recreation and Parks

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“I’ve been an officer for 29 years, and I’ve always known I can go buy drugs there, and I did as a narcotics officer. So what I’m saying is, we are trying to make it not convenient,” he added. 

Fernandes also said the city plans to enhance the park’s existing camera network. LAPD officers and Los Angeles Park Rangers will be able to monitor the cameras from their respective stations, he said. City officials are still evaluating whether additional cameras will be needed to address blind spots in the park after construction is complete.

Ariana Walker, who visits MacArthur Park every Saturday with a group of friends who pool their own resources to distribute food and hygiene kits, questioned whether the city had shown that the fence would improve safety and how much it would cost to maintain.

“The fence is a $2.3 million fence at the base level,” she said. “And they haven’t given us any indication of how much more it’s going to cost for upkeep, to keep anybody safe. There’s no conclusive evidence that a fence is going to stop crime the way that they’re suggesting.”

The meeting grew tense when John Alle, a local property owner whose family owns the building that houses Langer’s Delicatessen across the street from the park, objected to having his comments read from a written comment card rather than speaking directly to officials. Alle has been a vocal critic of the city’s response to drug activity and public safety concerns around MacArthur Park.

He was allowed to comment during the meeting and said the city needs to take a tougher approach to drug use and sales around the park. 

“We see knife attacks at all hours of the day. It’s out of control. And it’s not gotten any better,” he said. “We want to bring it back to where it was 15 or 20 years ago.”

Los Angeles officials expect construction of a fence around MacArthur Park will start in November and continue through fall 2027.

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Gary Coronado

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The LA Local

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Alle pointed to public events at the park, including an upcoming Día de los Muertos celebration and a Labor Day weekend picnic hosted by Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman as positive developments for the space. But he added those events do not reflect conditions throughout the park.

Officials also outlined other planned improvements, including restoring access through the tunnels connecting the park’s north and south sides, making accessibility upgrades and providing free Wi-Fi for parkgoers. 

Residents who want to provide input on the fence’s decorative elements can email admin@themorcosgroup.com or call (310) 479-4727 for more information.

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