Rancho Tehama works to find peace after mass shooting

At the entrance to Rancho Tehama, flowers lay at the welcome sign, as well as painted rocks bearing messages such as "love never fails" and "it can only get better.”

Other tokens of love, hope and healing can be found in different areas of the community 13 miles west of Red Bluff, weeks after it was shaken by a gunman on Nov. 14 that killed five people and injured 12 others before turning the gun on himself.

The 1,500 residents are just now easing into a sense of peace in a slow and long journey — by finding each other.

Jay Lobdell, 42, works at the G&K Country Store, known informally as the “community gas station." Lobdell moved to Rancho Tehama two years ago to escape the harsh Michigan winter.

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At Rancho Tehama he built an extended family of friends. His wife landed a job at Rancho Tehama School. His sister moved to the neighborhood, and he’s on a first-name basis with most of his customers.

“It’s a great community,” he said. “It was nice and quiet, up until a month ago.”

That was the day Lobdell saw the shooter, Kevin Janson Neal, speeding toward Rancho Tehama Elementary.

“I knew all the victims, the shooter, everybody,” he said.

Lobdell’s wife was working at the school that day. A quick lockdown barred Janson from killing any of the children, although he continued to shoot at the school. Lobdell pointed to his wife’s car to show a bullet hole in the roof.

His friend and fellow volunteer firefighter, Johnny Phommathep Sr., nearly lost his whole family that day.

MORE:A time of healing for the Rancho Tehama community

Phommathep’s wife, Tiffany was driving two of their three children to school when Neal pulled up next to her pickup on Stagecoach Road and opened fire. Tiffany took four bullets to her left shoulder and one to her abdomen that perforated her intestine. Their son Jake was shot above the left ankle, and Nico sustained cuts as the truck's glass shattered. Despite her injuries, Tiffany grabbed her gun from her glove compartment, prepared to fight back. But Neal had already driven away, toward the school.

Tehama County Assistant Sheriff Phil Johnston later found the family and rushed them to medical treatment.

“I’ve never had to thank anyone, anyone, for saving my whole family,” Phommathep said after meeting with Johnston.

Phommathep said the family is healing, and his wife requires a lot of medical care. The insurance isn’t able to cover for all of Tiffany’s needs, but the money they’ve received from an online fundraiser is helping them push through. The 24 other volunteers firefighters Phommathep works with have been helping the family.

“My firefighter family has offered to mow my lawn, and do my dishes,” he said with a laugh.

But at this point, he said, it’s all about the recovery.

“We’re doing good as a family,” he said. “My wife is tough, my kids are tough.”

MORE:Rancho Tehama gunman killed himself, autopsy says

Phommathep often thinks about his friend Danny Lee Elliot, 38, who died that day.

“He was a good guy,” Phommathep said about his friend. “He kept a lot of good people out of our block.”

Elliot and his mother, Diana Lee Steele, 68, lived across the street from Neal, who often threatened to kill them and Elliot’s son, who attended Rancho Elementary School. In January 2017, Neal stabbed Steele and Elliot’s girlfriend.

But Neal's mother bailed him out shortly thereafter, and that’s when things got worse.

“After January, it was a matter of when,” Phommathep said.

Elliot and Steele were among the first victims Neal killed. His wife, Barbara Ann Glisan, 38, was killed the day before and law enforcement officers discovered her body buried under the floorboards of their home.

“That was tough to hear what he did to his wife,” Phommathep said. “She was a good lady.”

Pastor Stephen May, who works Rancho Tehama Community Church, says the shooting shattered a sense of peace in the community.

“We’ve been continuing to pray for revival. People need to realize there is a spiritual need for peace,” he said.

MORE:Rancho Tehama shooting victims: 'We threw a dart in the middle of nowhere, and it happened here'

The Sunday after the shooting, many parishioners expressed anger and questioned why it happened. But the anger quickly turned to gratitude that no children died that day.

May attributes the shooting to evil.

“(Neal) was chosen as a vessel for evil that day. I believe, anyway,” he said. “It’s a sad thing it happened. But that’s the unpredictability of life … of evil, and sometimes it likes to raise its ugly head.”

About three weeks after the shooting, May led a prayer at a memorial ceremony at the Rancho Tehama Association and read the names of each of the lives lost that day — Michelle Iris McFadyen, Danny Lee Elliott, Diana Lee Steele, Joseph Edward McHugh III, Barbara Ann Glisan. The last name he read was Neal’s.

Why pray for the shooter?

 “God is the final judge, no matter what we may think, what we believe,” May said.

Despite the shooting, residents feel Rancho Tehama is the safest place they’d ever be. 

For Carole Sievers, who moved from the Bay Area about four years ago, the community seemed a perfect fit.

“I have more friends here, and am busier than I’ve ever been,” she said as she packed bags of food for Christmas at the Rancho Tehama Community Church.

“We’re a family out here,” said Beverly Gano. “There are women from all walks of life living here.”

And while there are “bad people” in every community, Sievers said, what Rancho Tehama offers her and her family is different from anyplace else.

“I feel safer here than I do walking in Corning or Red Bluff at night,” she said.

But after Nov. 14, the three couldn't help but reflect that they could've been the ones to lose their lives that day, too. They pass by the school during their walk to church every morning. But that day, they decided to stay in.

"We all believe it was a God thing," Sievers said.

Lisa Kassik, who works as a case manager with the church, said now the effort is toward getting the community back together again.

“We’re trying to get back to normal,” she said. That means showing up for school, showing up for church.

“We’re back to doing the things we do,” she said. “We’re a community of love and we all take care of each other.”