4 dead, including gunman, in hourlong shooting spree

TUSTIN, Calif. – Police identified Ali Syed, an unemployed sometime-student who lived at home with his parents, as the killer who stole cars and fired into freeway traffic during a shooting spree that covered 25 miles and took less than an hour. “I killed somebody,” he reportedly told the driver of a pickup during one carjacking. “Today is my last day.”

Police said Syed executed Melvin Lee Edwards, 69, a businessman on his way to work, after ordering him out of his car and walking him to the curb. Minutes later, he confronted Jeremy Lewis, 26, a worker at a construction site, and shot him as he sat in his truck. But investigators had not identified a woman they believe was Syed’s first victim. She was shot multiple times before dawn in the home where Syed lived with his parents and other family members in the Orange County community of Ladera Ranch.

Syed’s parents told investigators they did not know the woman and had never seen her before, said Jim Amormino, a spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department. Investigators were trying late Tuesday to identify her through her fingerprints.

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