Seal Beach salon shooting shocks residents

Dozens gathered in the small and simple chapel of SeaCoast Grace Church in Seal Beach to pray, to cry and to know they were not alone.

They were there Wednesday evening to mourn the eight who had been killed in the shooting at the Salon Meritage, only a few blocks from the sanctuary. They were also mourning for the sense of security that the deadliest mass murder in Orange County history punctured in their tight-knit community.

“Stuff like that doesn’t happen here,” said Ashley Rhoads, who grew up in Seal Beach. She lives in Long Beach now, but her first instinct after hearing about the shooting was to return home.

Photos: Seal Beach shooting

The city’s residents were bewildered, said SeaCoast Pastor Peter DeSoto. “They’re in shock because of the gravity of the act.”

In the wake of the shootings, shaken residents struggled to hold back tears. Many said they had a connection with the people killed or wounded: They had their hair styled by them or had gone to high school with them or recognized them from around the shopping center.

“It’s going to take time to wrap our brains around it,” said Kari Salveson of Los Alamitos, a former longtime client of the salon.

Seeing a body being carried out of the salon stunned onlookers earlier in the day. It seemed so out of place in this sun-soaked town with its palm-tree-lined streets, manicured lawns and bicyclists riding down the sidewalks. The police even said they haven’t had to investigate a homicide in years.

“We usually say the worst thing that happens here is that bikes get stolen,” said Robin Collier, who lives near the scene of the shooting. “They call this ‘Mayberry by the sea’ because it’s just like that — everybody knows everybody.”

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Times staff writer Lauren Williams contributed to this report.