Police search for motive in deadly library shooting in New Mexico

[August 29, 2017]    (Reuters) - Police in eastern New Mexico will search on Tuesday for the motive that led to young man to go on a shooting spree inside a library, killing two people and wounding four.

Police in Clovis, New Mexico are trying to determine why the suspect, who has not been identified, opened fire inside the city's public library on Monday afternoon before he gave himself up to police, Police Chief Douglas Ford told a news conference.

"We are in the infancy of this and we will have to gather information and talk to him and find out if he will give up any other information," Ford said.

Two women were killed and two other women and two men were wounded and taken to University Medical Center in Lubbock, Texas, about 100 miles (161 kms) southeast of Clovis. Two of the patients were in critical condition, hospital spokesman Eric Finley said.

Vanessa Aguirre was in the Clovis-Carter Public Library with her son when a man came in and started to shoot into the air, the Eastern New Mexico News reported.

"It all happened so fast," she told the newspaper. "We took off fast. My purse is still in there."

Police surrounded the library building for more than an hour, the newspaper reported. Its website published images of a young man being led away by a police officer, and a woman being carried into an ambulance.

Clovis, with a population of about 40,000, is around 190 miles (300 km) east of Albuquerque. It is home to Cannon Air Force Base.

(Reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

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