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Oakland shooter wanted refund after dropping out, school official says

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ASSOCIATED PRESS
This photo released by the Alameda County Sheriff's Department shows One Goh, 43, who is suspected of killing seven people at Oikos University in Oakland, Calif., on Monday April 2, 2012. (AP Photo/Alameda County Sheriff's Dept. via The San Francisco Chronicle) MANDATORY CREDIT

OAKLAND, Calif. >> Police confirmed today that the nursing program director of the California college where a former student is suspected of going on a shooting rampage was the suspect’s intended target.

Oakland Police Chief Howard Jordan told The Associated Press that investigators believe Ellen Cervellon was the person sought by suspect One Goh.

Police said that when Goh was told Cervellon wasn’t there at the time, he began shooting in classrooms.

Goh had been upset after dropping out of the nursing program because school officials would not fully refund his tuition, Cervellon said.

Meanwhile, prosecutors filed seven murder charges against Goh. He also was charged Wednesday with three counts of attempted murder and faces a special circumstance allegation of multiple murders that could make him eligible for the death penalty. 

Goh surrendered to authorities Monday, an hour after the attack at Oikos University that left seven dead and three others wounded. 

Police say in court documents that Goh admitted to bringing a .45-caliber handgun to Oikos and four magazines of ammunition. The documents say he acknowledged shooting several people before fleeing.

Goh is scheduled to make his first appearance in Alameda County Superior Court later Monday. 

Cervellon told the AP that she believes she was the intended target but was teaching elsewhere that morning.

Goh dropped out of the nursing program at Oikos University around November, but came back to campus numerous times to ask her for a full tuition refund, she said.

Goh got angry when she told him the school could not refund all his money because he had been enrolled for nearly half of the program, she said.

“In talking to several of the students and faculty who were there, I think he was looking for me. I have that weight on my shoulders and I don’t know what to do with it,” she told The Associated Press, her voice quavering with emotion. “Every single one of those students were going to be an excellent, excellent nurse. They’re in my heart and they always will be.”

Cervellon said she was not on campus that morning because she was doing her other job, teaching nursing to students at California State University, East Bay.

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