4 dead in shooting at Cook’s Corner biker bar in Southern California

The gunman believed to have carried out a deadly shooting at a California biker bar is a former law enforcement officer who was targeting his wife, three law enforcement sources familiar with the investigation told NBC News.

Four people were dead — including the shooter — at the scene in the incident at Cook’s Corner Bar in Trabuco Canyon, the Orange County Sheriff’s Department said.

Six people were transported to hospitals, five of whom had gunshot wounds, the department said on the social media platform now known as X.

“Officer-involved shooting occurred during the incident,” the sheriff’s department said on the platform, formerly known as Twitter. It said no deputies were injured.

Aerial video from the scene showed a large presence of police and fire department vehicles.

The sheriff’s department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office said they were aware of the shooting and coordinating with local officials.

State Sen. Catherine Blakespear, whose district includes Orange County, said she was “devastated” about the shooting. “My heart aches for those involved,” she wrote on social media. “My team and I are monitoring the situation and thank the first responders for their involvement at the scene.”

State Sen. Dave Min, who also represents the county, Called Cook’s Corner “a historic bar in the heart of Orange County.”

“Our district is one of the safest areas in the country, and yet we too are repeatedly afflicted with the scourge of mass shootings,” Min wrote.

Cook’s Corner advertises itself as one of the most famous biker bars in Southern California.

It opened in 1931 as a roadside hamburger restaurant, and later became a bar and was discovered by bikers in the 1970s, the Los Angles Times reported in a history of the establishment published in 2005.

Trabuco Canyon is a community of around 1,000 in the foothills in Orange County, about 12 miles east of Irvine.