1 Dead, 4 Hurt in Simi Valley Shooting

Simi Valley (myFOXla.com) - A gunman opened fire inside a busy dental office in an apparent domestic dispute Wednesday, leaving one woman dead and three critically wounded, police said. A fourth person was grazed by a bullet.

The man, wearing shorts, no shirt and with a shaved head, surrendered after barricading himself inside the Family Dental Care office, police Sgt. Karl Becker said. A hostage negotiator coaxed the man out about an hour after the first shots were fired.

You can watch Hal Eisner's report in the video player.

Though detectives did not release a motive or identify the suspect, one of the dental office workers said the gunman was married to the victim who was shot to death, according to the Ventura County Star newspaper.

Police evacuated more than a dozen people from the dentist's office and a chiropractic office next door, including two children who witnessed the shooting.

Next door, Carley Hodgson, an X-ray technician intern, heard three shots in quick succession and huddled in the back room with six co-workers behind a locked door for about 30 minutes.

Shawn Peloquin, a mechanic who owns an auto repair shop behind the dentist's offices, saw people running out the back exit and into his driveway. One man held his stomach because he had been shot, as he staggered into Peloquin's driveway.

Peloquin said the young man told him, "My sister's been shot a bunch of times in there."

Peloquin and Becky Brown, a volunteer EMT, tried to stop the bleeding by applying pressure to the wound, where the bullet entered and exited his torso.

"He kept asking, 'Am I going to die?"' Brown said.

A call to the dental office was not immediately returned.

Simi Valley is about 35 miles northwest of Los Angeles.