Gunman at pool party on phone to ex-girlfriend
Print Edition
A POOL party was in full swing when a lone man reclining in a lounge chair with a blank expression pulled a gun from his waistband and began shooting.
As bodies fell and people ran for their lives, the gunman, despondent over a recent breakup, dialed his ex-girlfriend so she could listen as he continued firing.
Although Peter Selis was white and all but one of the victims were black and Latino, San Diego Police Chief Shelley Zimmerman said on Monday there was “zero indication” race was a motive.
Instead, the attack that killed one woman and injured six other partygoers seemed to be driven by a recent split-up with the woman he called after he shot his first two victims.
“It is apparent that Selis wanted his ex-girlfriend to listen in as he carried out his rampage,” Zimmerman said. “These victims were just in his vicinity when he committed this terrible tragedy.”
Selis, 49, was gunned down in a shootout with police less than an hour after he had stood out from the crowd of about 35 as he sat alone in the pool area of the La Jolla Crossroads apartment complex, where he lived on Judicial Drive.
As children splashed, a family soaked in a hot tub and others ate chips and hot dogs, Selis sat by the pool gate wearing a heavy black jacket on a hot day, said Demetrius Griffin, a guest at the party.
The shooting began after the man celebrating his 50th birthday approached Selis. Griffin assumed his friend, who was always welcoming, had invited the man to join the fun.
Instead, Selis pulled a gun from his waistband, shot the party host twice in the torso and then opened fire on the party, Griffin said.
“It was very eerie, to say the least. He didn’t stand up. He didn’t say anything. He just opened fire.”
Griffin briefly froze and then dropped to the ground as six rounds sent people scattering and dropped others on the pool deck.
When Selis called his ex-girlfriend he told her he had shot two people and that the police were arriving. He then “made some reference to ‘shooting it out’ or something along those lines,” Assistant Police Chief Brian Ahearn said. The woman heard two more gunshots before the line went dead, Ahearn said.
One victim, 34-year-old Thomas Blea, said he was grateful to a security guard at the complex who hustled him and two other victims quickly to safety.
“That guy saved us a lot of time. Getting us to the fire department in a safe zone,” said Blea as he sat with his leg bandaged in a wheelchair outside a hospital.
Selis, a father who worked as a mechanic at a Ford dealership, had been distraught and depressed after a breakup just days before, though family and friends interviewed by police had no hint of any sinister plot.
He filed for federal bankruptcy protection in October 2015, listing US$14,000 in assets and US$108,000 in liabilities, according to court records.
Selis shot three black women, two black men, a Latino man and a white woman, police said.
Six of the victims were expected to survive, Zimmerman said. Another man was taken to hospital after he broke his arm running away.
Investigators have not found any writings or evidence from Internet searches that Selis had planned the shootings, Ahearn said.
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