Akiva Sherman, right, 62, repairs the wall next to a makeshift memorial Sunday, June 9, 2013, where a victim's vehicle crashed during the shootings at Santa Monica College in Santa Monica, Calif. The shootings on Friday left six people dead, including the gunman. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu)
Akiva Sherman, right, 62, repairs the wall next to a makeshift memorial Sunday, June 9, 2013, where a victim's vehicle crashed during the shootings at Santa Monica College in Santa Monica, Calif. The shootings on Friday left six people dead, including the gunman. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu)
This undated photo provided on Sunday, June 9, 2013, by the Santa Monica Police Department shows John Zawahri, 23, who police have identified as the shooter in Friday's deadly rampage at Santa Monica College. The suspect was shot and killed by authorities Friday after a violent spree that claimed the lives of five people and wounded several others. (AP Photo/Santa Monica Police Department)
Debra and Russell Fine pose for a photo Sunday, June 9, 2013 in Santa Monica, Calif. Debra Fine, who was wounded Friday when shooting suspect John Zawahri went on a deadly rampage in Santa Monica, was released in good condition late Saturday from Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, according to a hospital statement. Bullets missed his wife?s vital organs by inches, Russell Fine told the AP Sunday. (AP Photo/Tami Abdollah)
A picture of the suspect entering Santa Monica College Library is seen as Jacqueline Seabrook, Chief of Santa Monica Police department speaks during a news conference Saturday June 8, 2013, in Santa Monica, Calif., to discuss more information regarding the suspect in the shooting that left five people dead, including the shooter, near Santa Monica College on Friday. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu)
This photo provided by the Santa Monica Police Department during a news conference Saturday, June 8, 2013, shows a frame grab from a surveillance camera revealing the suspect entering Santa Monica College Friday, in Santa Monica, Calif. The Police chief said Saturday that the gunman who went on a chaotic rampage killing four people before being fatally shot by police at the college planned the attack and was capable of firing 1,300 rounds of ammunition. (AP Photo/Santa Monica Police Department)
SANTA MONICA, Calif. (AP) ? Santa Monica College reopened under extra security Monday except for the library, where police shot and killed a heavily armed gunman after a rampage that left five people dead.
Students who fled Friday would be able to resume final examinations and retrieve backpacks, car and other belongings, according to the college website.
Counselors were on hand and a candlelight vigil was planned for Monday evening in front of the library.
Investigators, meanwhile, were trying to determine why John Zawahri, 23, killed his father and older brother in a home near campus Friday, leaving the house in flames. He fired at a car, wounding the driver, took another motorist hostage and forced her to drive as he shot at people and a bus in the neighborhood. He shot a woman in the head on campus and was shot and killed by police in the college library after gunning down a total of five people in fewer than 15 minutes.
Debra Fine was wounded when Zawahri opened fire on her car. She said the attacker had spiky hair, wore black clothing and a ballistics vest, and a cold, intense stare.
There was "no hesitation, no flick of a muscle, nothing. Just absolutely staring and going onto the next step," Fine recalled. "I just simply got in his way. And he needed to kill me. That was it."
She recognized the eyes in a 2006 high school yearbook photo of Zawahri shown to her by The Associated Press.
Investigators were trying to determine whether Zawahri had mental health problems that may have sparked the rampage.
Authorities hoped his mother, who returned early from a trip abroad and was interviewed Sunday by police, could help provide clues about what triggered the violence.
"A big piece of the puzzle just came home," Sgt. Richard Lewis said.
The killing began as a domestic violence attack when Zawahri killed his father, Samir, 55, and brother, Christopher, 24, in their home near Interstate 10 in a working-class part of town a few miles from the beachside attractions that draw tourists year-round.
The gunman, carrying a duffel bag with 1,300 rounds of ammo, fired shots in the neighborhood and took his rampage on the road.
Fine was the first stranger shot by Zawahri. She was using side streets after her singing lesson to avoid traffic from President Barack Obama's visit three miles away when the gunman motioned at the car of the woman in front of her with his rifle, telling her to pull over.
Fine thought the man was providing security for the president's visit. Then he pointed the rifle at the woman and started to yell.
Upset that he would yell at someone who cooperated, Fine accelerated.
"He looked right at me," Fine said. "Stared right at me and then shot. No hesitation."
Zawahri then walked toward her, shooting again. Fine was hit in the shoulder, arm and ear, and she lay on the passenger seat, pretending to be dead. Zawahri, meanwhile, carjacked the woman he'd stopped and directed her to Santa Monica College, firing at bystanders along the way and shooting up a city bus.
At the college, he blasted a Ford Explorer driven by Carlos Navarro Franco, 68, killing the driver and his daughter, Marcela Franco, 26, who died Sunday. The father was a longtime groundskeeper at the college and was taking his daughter to buy textbooks for summer classes.
On foot, Zawahri headed for the library, spraying gunfire around campus as students, who were in the middle of final exams, took cover in classrooms or bolted for their lives. He fatally shot one woman in the head and then casually strolled past a cart of books into the library where he fired 70 shots without striking anyone.
In a shootout with three police officers, Zawahri was struck multiple times. His body was taken outside, where he was pronounced dead.
A small cache of ammunition was found in a room of the burnt house.
The elder Zawahri brought his family to the neighborhood of small homes and apartment buildings tucked up against Interstate 10 in the mid-1990s, according to property records.
Not long after arriving on Yorkshire Avenue, Samir Zawahri and his wife Randa Abdou, 54, went through a difficult divorce and split custody of their two boys, said Thomas O'Rourke, a neighbor. When the sons got older, one went to live with his mother while the other stayed with the father.
Public records show Abdou, who lives in an apartment a couple miles away, was the ex-wife of Samir Zawahri and former co-owner of the house where the first shooting took place.
John Zawahri had a run-in with police seven years ago, but Police Chief Jacqueline Seabrooks wouldn't offer more details because he was a juvenile at the time. She said the gunman was enrolled at Santa Monica College in 2010.
Home from the hospital on Sunday, Fine recalled the moments after she was shot. Neighbors had come to help her, one holding towels to her wounds. Fifteen minutes later paramedics arrived. Her husband Russell Fine said he rushed to her side by using the family GPS tracking feature on his phone to pinpoint her location.
"When I got ... into the trauma room and I heard one of the doctors say, 'Two more have arrived but they're DOA,' that's when I realized that this was part of something bigger, and that his intent had been to kill people," Fine said. "I'm just, I feel very, very lucky to be here."
"I've always been right in the middle on the gun control issue, and I'm not anymore," she added. "When are we going to get the guns out of the hands of the people who are mentally ill, or when is there enough proof that it's very dangerous to have those types of weapons out there?"
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Associated Press writer Christopher Weber contributed to this story. Tami Abdollah can be reached at: http://www.twitter.com/latams
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