How Poor Weapon Skills May Have Saved Lives in Chico Library Attack

Prosecutors investigating the deadly shooting at the Butte County Library in Chico have uncovered a grim detail that, by dark providence, may have prevented an even greater tragedy: the gunman didn’t know how to properly operate the weapon he used.

Bradley Sayer, an 18-year-old recent Chico High School graduate, opened fire on Monday, killing two people and traumatizing the roughly 20 others inside the library. But according to Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey, the death toll could have been catastrophically higher. Sayer loaded the shotgun one shell at a time from his pocket—a clumsy, inefficient method that suggests he was unfamiliar with the weapon.“It would have been a much different body count if he used the shotgun as most people do,”Ramsey said. That single detail of inexperience stands as a narrow threshold between the tragedy that occurred and something far worse.

The attack itself reveals a calculated plan rooted in an online obsession. Court documents and investigators’findings show that Sayer, who had been described by classmates as generally friendly and shy, had“fallen down an internet rabbit hole”roughly four years ago into online communities that glorified mass shootings, particularly the 1999 Columbine school shooting. He dressed as one of the Columbine shooters on the day of the attack and uploaded a video explicitly stating his intent to go to the library and kill as many people as possible. He also maintained what prosecutors described as a“disturbing journal.”The guns—two .22 caliber rifles and a .20 gauge pump-action shotgun, along with ammunition—came from a bedroom closet in his father’s home while the father was out of town.

Two lives were lost in the violence. Jacob Cody Hull, a 46-year-old maintenance supervisor at the Oxford Suites of Chico, had brought his 7-year-old niece to the library to pick out books. He was shot outside the building first in the leg, then in the head. His niece—the girl he served as a father figure to—escaped by crawling through a shattered window, suffering cuts to her abdomen. Robert Johnson, 74, a retired farm manager, was shot twice in the head while sitting at a table eating. His family remembered the library as his“happy place,”a sanctuary that reinforced his lifelong passion for reading.

What likely prevented a much larger casualty count wasn’t just Sayer’s inexperience with the shotgun. Library staff also played a critical role. When the shooting began, employees moved most patrons to a back room and locked the door—a swift act of emergency response that shielded the majority of people inside from immediate danger. Sayer also attempted to set fires with kitchen matches in an apparent bid to delay first responders, and later tried unsuccessfully to load a rifle round into the shotgun to take his own life. Officers outside the building eventually drew his attention, and he surrendered without further violence. He’s now being held on suicide watch.

The case underscores a troubling pattern: radicalization through online content, often targeting vulnerable young people who may struggle with isolation or social difficulty. Ramsey noted that Sayer had“slight autism”and had performed well in advanced placement classes, painting a portrait of a student with academic capability but social isolation—exactly the kind of vulnerability that extreme online communities can exploit. His parents’divorce during his high school years only deepened that isolation.