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Coroner rules Cupertino shooter's death a suicide

The Santa Clara County medical examiner's office announced Tuesday, Oct. 11, that Shareef Allman, the man responsible for the deadly shooting rampage at a Cupertino cement plant last week, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

The Santa Clara County sheriff's office initially reported that three deputies had shot and killed Allman, a 49-year-old disgruntled truck driver who shot nine people at the plant, killing three.

Allman died in a Sunnyvale neighborhood during a confrontation with deputies during a massive, 24-hour manhunt. Mountain View school children were affected when a nearby science camp was placed on lock-down and Mountain View and Alta Vista high schools, along with a preschool, were evacuated as a precautionary measure.

Capt. Kevin Jensen, an administrative coroner at the medical examiner's office, said Allman had other wounds but that the lethal wound was a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.

At about 4:15 a.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 5, Allman opened fire on about 15 of his fellow employees at a meeting at the Lehigh Southwest Cement Plant at 24001 Stevens Creek Blvd.

Killed were John Robert Vallejos, 51, and Mark Munoz, 59, both of San Jose, and Manuel Guadalupe Pinon, 48, of Newman.

Allman fled the plant and carjacked a woman at gunpoint shortly before 7 a.m. in a Hewlett-Packard company parking lot. When the woman refused to turn over her car, he shot her once and fled. She suffered injuries that were not believed to be life-threatening.

A manhunt ensued, during which Allman was found the following morning crouched behind a car parked on Lorne Way in Sunnyvale.

Three deputies approached Allman and attempted to confront him, but when they saw that he had a handgun, all three deputies fired at him, Sheriff Laurie Smith said.

—Bay City News Service