Ghost gun used in Butte County school shooting came from convicted felon in Arizona, officials say
The gun used to critically injure two elementary school students in Butte County was a modified weapon — also known as a ghost gun — the shooter bought from a felon in Arizona, officials said Tuesday.| VIDEO ABOVE | Students at Butte County school return after shooting for day of healingGlenn Litton, 56, opened fire at Feather River Adventist School near Palermo at 1:09 p.m. on Dec. 4, 2024, wounding two students ages 5 and 6. The Butte County Sheriff's Office said Litton killed himself afterward.Investigators already knew the Glock 19 gun did not have a serial number and had parts from different firearms. The sheriff's office said with the help of the FBI it learned the gun had a previous owner in Buckeye, Arizona.The sheriff's office said it also learned that Litton was in Phoenix in April of 2025. Detectives in December went to Arizona and found that Litton bought the handgun from a 77-year-old man who had lawfully purchased the weapon from the widow of the original owner.On April 8, 2024, the sheriff's office said the 77-year-old man sold the gun to 45-year-old Jesse Kitagawa Jr., a convicted felon who is prohibited from possessing firearms. Investigators said the 77-year-old did not violate Arizona state law when he sold it to Kitagawa because Kitagawa had an Arizona state-issued driver's license at the time and told the seller he could lawfully own guns.| RELATED READ | What we know about the school shootingKitagawa met with Litton at a motel in Chandler two days later and sold the gun to Litton for $300, the sheriff's office said. Law enforcement with the sheriff's office and Phoenix Police Department searched Kitagawa's home and found that Litton practiced with the gun at a shooting range in Phoenix.In a news release, Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea expressed gratitude toward the officers "who spent many hours doggedly pursuing leads that led to the identification of Kitagawa as the person who supplied Litton the firearm he used to carry out his evil plan.""I want express my sincere gratitude to the members of my office who spent many hours doggedly pursuing leads that led to the identification of Kitagawa as the person who supplied Litton the firearm he used to carry out his evil plan," Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said in a news release.The sheriff's office said the ammunition Litton used in the shooting was similar to the ammo he purchased in Phoenix. Litton returned to California on a Greyhound bus on April 19.Officers arrested Kitagawa in connection with being a felon in possession of a firearm, the sheriff's office said. He made his first court appearance on Friday and is expected to be formally charged by the Maricopa County District Attorney's Office at his next court date, which has not yet been set.Litton, who attended a religious school as a child, has a criminal history that includes identity theft, fraud and forgery. He served time in California State Prison in the 1990s and early 2000s for theft-related crimes. In 2015 he was sentenced to two years in prison for aggravated identity theft in Sacramento.As recently as Nov. 12, he was on the radar of law enforcement, after being arrested in San Francisco for stealing a U-Haul truck in Chico.He entered the campus under the alias "Michael Sanders" under the guise of meeting with the school principal to possibly enroll his grandson. The shooting happened shortly afterward, injuring 5-year-old Elias Wolford and 6-year-old Roman Mendez.| VIDEO BELOW | 6th grader shares harrowing experience from Butte County school shootingFeather River Adventist School is a small, private school operated by the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Honea said around 35 students attend the school. The school serves kindergarten through eighth grade. The website states the school has been at its current location since 1965.See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter
