Suspect Shoots Self in Head

A man suspected of going on a New Year’s Day shooting spree that left one person dead and two wounded was in serious condition after shooting himself in the head, authorities said Sunday.

The suspect, Robert Wheeler, 25, of Canyon Country called the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department about 11 p.m. Saturday from a phone booth on Pico Canyon Road in Stevenson Ranch and said he had earlier killed store clerk, Christopher Simons, 25, of Saugus.

As deputies approached, Wheeler left the phone booth, got a rifle from his car and shot himself, said Deputy Josie Woolum, a spokeswoman for the Sheriff’s Department.

Wheeler’s attempted suicide capped what authorities believe was a violent night.

Simons was working alone at the Santa Clarita Adult Gift store in the 25000 block of San Fernando Road when he was shot two separate times Saturday evening.

After allegedly shooting Simons at about 8:30 p.m., Wheeler took some merchandise -- but no money -- from the store, then returned about 20 minutes later and shot Simons again, said Woolum.

“Something like this is unique,” Woolum said, adding that surveillance camera footage recovered from the store indicated the time frame of the shootings.

However, it was unclear at what point Simons, who did not call for help after the first attack, had died, Woolum said.

A short time after Wheeler apparently returned to the store to shoot Simons again, a man was shot while rummaging through a trash bin near Haskell Canyon Road and Bouquet Canyon Road in Santa Clarita.

After “feeling something hit his back,” Woolum said, the man went to a hospital, where doctors removed a .22-caliber bullet.

Wheeler is suspected in that shooting, she added.

And later still, Woolum said, a nearby resident reported being shot in the upper torso by an intruder -- again believed to be Wheeler -- who then fled in a car. The resident was taken to a local hospital, where he was reported in good condition.

The motive for the attacks, Woolum said, was unknown.