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Jonathan Stratton/KHTS News.

Criminal Charges For Saugus High Shooting Declined Due To Insufficient Evidence

The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office has declined to press criminal charges related to the Saugus High Shooting nearly a year after the tragedy, officials said Friday.

On the morning of Nov. 14, 2019, the landscape of the Santa Clarita community was “forever changed” when 16-year-old Nathaniel Berhow walked into the quad of Saugus High School, pulled a .45-caliber semi-automatic handgun from his backpack, and opened fire, according to Sheriff’s officials.

Two students, 15-year-old Gracie Muehlberger and 14-year-old Dominic Blackwell, were killed as a result of the shooting. Three other students were injured before Berhow turned the gun on himself, resulting in his death the next day.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Homicide Bureau was investigating Berhow’s mother, Mami Matsuura-Berhow, in connection to how the high school student obtained the “ghost gun” used in the shooting.

Homicide detectives presented charges of criminal storage of a firearm and contributing to the delinquency of a minor, according to investigators.

“Among other items found cluttered under suspect’s bed in the master bedroom were two handheld gun cases,” a report from the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office reads. “One case contained an unloaded handgun which appeared to have been built from an 80% unfinished frame/receiver kit. The second case only contained a .45 caliber cartridge without a firing pin.”

On Oct. 23, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office declined the charges due to insufficient evidence, confirmed Greg Risling, spokesperson for the office on Friday.

“In the garage, in an unlocked makeshift gun safe, was an unloaded semiautomatic rifle, which also appeared to have been built from an 80% kit,” the report reads. “Inside suspect’s son’s bedroom drawer was an unloaded single shot Colt derringer.”

A week after the shooting, investigators determined that the .45 caliber pistol used was a kit gun, according to Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva.

“The weapon used in the homicide was a kit gun, it was assembled from parts and had no serial number,” Villanueva said in a press conference at the time.

“Ghost guns are untraceable weapons that have been used in mass shootings throughout the country and right here in California — from Santa Monica in 2013, to Tehama County in 2017, and at Saugus High School just last year,” said Attorney General Becerra in a statement. “We can’t afford to wait for another tragedy to happen before we take action. It’s time for ATF to prioritize the safety of our communities by calling these products what they are: firearms, and regulating them accordingly.”

Without a commercial serial number and available for purchase without a background check, “ghost guns” are not currently considered subject to ATF regulation under the Gun Control Act due to the fact that the receiver, which houses all internal components including the barrel and trigger mechanism, are not finished at the time of purchase.

The parents of the victims, Bryan Muehlberger and Frank Blackwell, joined Becerra in September to advocate for a lawsuit to increase legislation on “ghost guns.”
There is still no clear motive for the Saugus High Shooting one year later.


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Criminal Charges For Saugus High Shooting Declined Due To Insufficient Evidence

12 comments

  1. I’m wondering if the Muehlberger & Blackwell families have checked into Victims of Crimes or something like that. This was a tragedy & far greater loss than one can imagine…losing a child. However, Ms. Matsuura-Berhow lost her child too. Tragedy for all 3 families. If you think about it, I bet 80% of homes in SCV have guns not properly locked in cabinets. When my sisters & I grew up and went to the only High School in town, it was not uncommon in the late 50s for kids to drive their trucks to school with a rifle in the back to go hunting when school was out. Today the world is very different. I think we need to make laws that prohibit kits, guns that are untraceable, rapid fire arms. NRA is a huge lobbying group that seems to have the GOP in their pocket currently. This is a huge fight, but certainly aren’t kids worth it?

    • He was 16, it was illegal for him to own a gun, do you know what else is illegal…murder. What led up to this senseless murder of two children has nothing to do with the NRA or the GOP. There is no correlation between stricter gun laws and crime rates, oh actually there is, the stricter the gun laws the higher the crime rate. Do not politicize this tragedy.

  2. Unless Nathaniel’s mom is a cannibal, the charges should have been contributing to the delinquency of a minor and not contributing to the delicacy of a minor

  3. Clarice, excuse me. The NRA has the constitution in their pocket. You said it. “Today the world is very different.” In the 50s and 60s, people had respect for others and only criminals were so callous as to have no regard for life. But yes, you are also right. For people to be able to get access to a gun with no responsibity, it opens the door to irresponsible violence. Berhow’s mother should be held responsible for not having more control of her son.

    • Oh my. I do hope you and your relatives have sufficient control over your adolescent sons and daughters that they never do anything rash and irresponsible. You all are speaking as if YOU have sufficient evidence when all you seem to have is righteous indignation and poorly informed opinion. I’m sure you all have perfect homes, so perhaps you will hire a billboard to tell the rest of the world how to avoid tragedy. And a tragedy it was for the victims, their families and friends, and for the mother who lost a son without an understanding of why it came to be.

  4. Justice has not been
    served.
    Two children are dead. 3 children who were shot have to live in pain the rest of their lives. All of Saugus children and teachers have been through so much

    The Mother of the shooter needs to be held accountable. If her son lived he would be in jail the rest of his life
    How can we believe and support the law if they don’t do their job
    This case needs to be reopened and have Court decide
    Grandmother of a saugus victim.

  5. The gold ‘ole, ‘blame the parents’ when you try to make sense of a tragedy. He was 16. He could work and drive a car. But he couldn’t make the decision to NOT take a gun that wasn’t his and kill people???

    For those of you anti-2A-ers, if you believe more gun regulation is needed in CA, (we already have the strictest gun laws in the country), then ya better start regulating all knives, even butter knives.
    There are more deaths by knifings each each, than guns.

  6. Good ol’ lawless California. This state is a joke and only getting worse. STOP blaming everyone except for the shooter. It wasn’t the guns fault or the NRA’s fault. It was the idiot shooters fault. I’m sure if he survived somehow the libs would blame it on mental illness and claim he was just bullied. How do you stop a bad guy with a gun…..a good guy with a gun. We don’t need gun regulation only idiot regulation.

  7. Hormonal emotional teenagers shouldn’t have access to guns. Parents should have a pulse on what their teens are purchasing on internet. Who funds these purchases? Parents!! Parents should absolutely have charges brought against them. CA is showing more empathy to the shooter which is sickening.

  8. If we would just outlaw guns completely we could put an end to tragedies like this. After all, that’s how we ended drug overdoses.
    Believing that laws and government will solve any of your problems for you is the thought of a child, and a really naive child at that. Good government is a service that assists the smooth functioning of a healthy society, but it is never a solution unto itself. Government taking the role of parent is bad governance.
    Having said all that, keeping all of my guns locked is something I do because it benefits ME. I never have to worry about coming home and having a surprised burglar shoot me with my own weapon. I never have to worry about getting shot when an acquaintance or a family member brings their ill-mannered progeny into my home. And I have a few gun lockers scattered around the house that I can open without a key in about 1 second. So I can always defend myself if the need arises.

  9. I “heard” that Nathanial was the ex BF of Gracie. That was the motive.

  10. Berhow had the means and the intent to kill. If this was a kit/ghost gun, it also shows premeditation, overt preparation and intent. He stood in plain sight and fired his weapon at the students, killing two of them.
    Is there anything missing for a charge of murder in the first degree?

    Perhaps if the Los Angeles DA is unwilling to prosecute Berhow (for reasons unexplained in this article), federal authorities could/should step in to prosecute him for depriving his victims of their civil rights, in this case, the right to life.

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About Devon Miller

Devon Miller was born and raised in Santa Clarita. He joined KHTS Radio as a digital marketing intern in September of 2017, and later moved to news as a staff writer in December. Miller attended College of the Canyons and served as the Associated Student Government President. Miller is now News Director for KHTS, covering breaking news and politics across the Santa Clarita Valley.