Chico Library Shooting: 18-Year-Old Planned Columbine-Style Attack, Killed Two Men with Shotgun

What Happened

On Monday evening, June 23, 2026, at approximately 5:12 p.m. local time, Bradley Scott Sayer walked through the Chico branch of the Butte County Library, returned to his vehicle, pulled a shotgun from the trunk, and opened fire.

According to Sid Patel, special agent in charge at the FBI's Sacramento office, Sayer shot the first victim near the library entrance. He fired a leg shot to disable him, then a fatal shot to the head. He then fired multiple rounds inside the building and shot a second victim in the head.

Chico Police Chief Billy Aldridge confirmed that gunshots and screaming were audible on the initial 911 calls. Officers arrived and had Sayer in custody in under four minutes. Sayer fled out the back of the building and was immediately apprehended by officers already positioned there. "From the first 911 call to having him in custody was less than four minutes," Aldridge said at a Tuesday press conference.

The Victims

Authorities identified the two men killed as Jacob Hull, 46, of Chico, and Robert Johnson, 74, of Orland, California.

Hull's brother, Benjamin Heneberry, told the Associated Press that Hull had arrived at the library moments before the shooting with his girlfriend's 7-year-old daughter and was sitting on a bench outside when he was shot. The child witnessed the attack and was hospitalized with minor injuries; she has since been released, according to The Guardian.

Heneberry described his brother as quiet, smart, and low-key. A father figure to the little girl, a fan of 1990s hip-hop. "We're just devastated and shocked," he said. A fundraiser has been set up for Hull's girlfriend and daughter.

The Columbine Connection

Sayer wore a white T-shirt with the words "natural selection" written on it during the attack, a documented reference to apparel worn by one of the two Columbine shooters in 1999. Patel said the shirt was among the first indicators of Sayer's motivation.

Butte County District Attorney Michael Ramsey said Tuesday that investigators confirmed the Columbine fixation through Sayer's post-arrest interviews and his social media history. "The suspect was a fan, and a fan for some time, of social media involving Columbine-type shootings, the school shootings, and had unfortunately made a deep dive into that social media community," Ramsey said.

Sayer graduated from Chico High School weeks before the attack. Patel said Sayer "was looking for a confined, populated location to attack," which is why he chose the library.

Officers recovered the shotgun from the library floor and two additional firearms from Sayer's vehicle. Aldridge confirmed the weapons were registered to Sayer's family but provided no further detail on that point.

The Father's Account

Sayer's father offers a different perspective. David Sayer told the San Francisco Chronicle there were zero warning signs before the shooting. He described his son as shy, "high-functioning" on the autism spectrum, and, in his words, "a delicate little flower."

Families of mass shooters routinely describe their children as quiet and non-threatening, and those descriptions are often accurate until they aren't. The father's statement does not contradict the documented evidence of Sayer's Columbine fixation; it simply says it wasn't visible at home. Whether the online radicalization was hidden, overlooked, or unknown is a question investigators will need to answer.

The association with autism should also be stated with precision: autism is not a predictor of violence, and researchers have consistently found no causal link between autism spectrum disorder and mass violence. Sayer's diagnosis is part of the record; it explains nothing by itself.

FBI Involvement and Charges

"Yesterday's violent attack was horrific," Patel said Tuesday. "The full force of the FBI is assisting this investigation."

Sayer is expected to face first-degree murder charges, according to The Guardian. No formal charging timeline was given at Tuesday's press conference.

The Online Pipeline Question

A key question remains unanswered: how did a teenager graduate high school, build a documented social media history centered on school shootings, and reach the point of planning and executing a mass murder without triggering any intervention?

Ramsey said Sayer made a "deep dive" into online communities devoted to Columbine-type shootings. Those communities exist on platforms that are well-documented by researchers and law enforcement. Whether any platform flagged Sayer's activity, whether law enforcement was ever alerted, and whether any pre-attack warning signs were reported and ignored remain open questions as of June 24, 2026. Investigators have not publicly addressed any of those points.