The father of alleged Chico library shooter Bradley Sayer has described his son’s whereabouts in the hours leading up to the deadly attack.
David Sayer, 66, said he last saw his autistic son shortly after 3 p.m. on June 22 — about two hours and 15 minutes before two men were fatally shot with weapons that had reportedly been stored in a bedroom closet at his four-bedroom home, valued at roughly $680,000.
The retired insurance salesman said Bradley, 18, is currently being held on suicide watch at a Butte County jail. He characterized the hours before the horrific incident as “just a normal Monday.”
Sayer told The Post: “That morning, I had a couple of errands for Brad to run. And so he went to the post office, picked up some stamps for me.
“Then he was off to donate blood at the local blood bank here in town but they rejected him because his blood pressure was 95 over 65, and they said it was too low.
“He came home around 2.30pm in the afternoon, and he gives me the stamps from his front pocket, and they’re all wet, which was kind of weird.”
According to Sayer, the family had planned a trip to Chester, a mountain community about 65 miles northeast of Chico, to mark the 40th birthday of his fiancée’s daughter.
He said he asked Bradley whether he wanted to come along with the three of them on the outing, which was set to begin at 3 p.m. and wrap up about six hours later.
“I gave him the option of going with us, staying home, or going over to his mother’s house, who lives about 300 yards away from my home,” said Sayer. “And he decided to stay home.”
Bradley told his dad he intended to head to the Alibi Pub & Grill on Floral Avenue for a meal and then would go for an evening swim at In Motion Fitness.
“He said, don’t worry, I’m going to be swimming from nine to 10,” explained Sayer.
“While we’re at the birthday party, we hear that there’s a shooting in Chico. We go, oh, s**t, that’s bad news.”
Sayer returned home at 9.15pm and found it in disarray. “Someone had ransacked my whole bedroom,” he added. “All the drawers were open, the medicine cabinet, everything was open.
“My .22s and my shotgun were gone. I called the police department, and told them I’d been burglarized.
“Somebody’s gone through my house, and they go, we can’t talk to you right now – we’re busy with this other thing. They said, we’ll have a detective call you back later tonight.”
Sayer said he drove to his ex-wife’s home to see if Bradley was there. But shortly after leaving was pulled over by police with flashing lights and sirens.
“The cops lit me up with their sirens and started questioning me,” he recounted. “That’s when I knew Brad had done something horribly wrong.”
Law enforcement and the federal agents obtained a search warrant to search Sayer’s home, and removed his son’s computer and other evidence, he said. Bradley had left his driver’s license inside.
Sayer said he turned over Ring camera footage to law enforcement which showed his son leaving the home at 4.22pm to put the weapons, wrapped in a blanket, into his blue Toyota Corolla.
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“He was already moving in motion to do his horrible thing,” said Sayer.
Police emergency dispatchers received reports of gunshots and screaming at the library at 5:12 p.m. Officers arrived within minutes, and the suspect was in custody by about 5:16 p.m.
Victims Jacob “Cody” Hull, 46, and Robert Johnson, 74, died in the shooting.
Sayer, a retired insurance salesman, stated that his three weapons used in the alleged murders – two .22 rifles and shot-gun – had been found by Bradley stored unlocked without cases inside his father’s bedroom walk-in closet before the attack.
He said his son hadn’t previously used the “duck hunting” 20-gauge shotgun, which had been left on the floor under some used shirts.
He hasn’t spoken with Bradley since the shooting. “I just can’t at this time,” said Sayer. I can’t believe what he’s done… it’s just beyond me.”
Sayer described his son as a book-loving loner with no friends who sang in his local Catholic church, worked part time in a pet store and was to attend Butte College in Oroville after the summer.
“It’s just very challenging for me at this time to figure out what went wrong with him,” said Sayer. “Why would he do such a thing?
“He’s an enigma right now. There were no warning signs. He was our little angel. He was just such a pleasant kid. I just think it boils down to his autism and no friends.
“He doesn’t – or didn’t – have a mean bone in his body, but his social skills were just lacking.”
According to Sayer, his son was diagnosed with autism aged two and didn’t speak until he was five and has “gone through hundreds and hundreds of therapy hours.” Recently, Bradley was not on medication for his autism and hadn’t been in therapy.
The Post previously revealed how Bradley’s parents had fought over his access to guns in 2022 during their bitter divorce.
Court documents show that his mother, Vicki Sayer, 51, was against him being permitted to use weapons, while his father said shooting guns “enriched his life.”
A document filed with the Butte County Superior Court stipulated that: “Bradley Sayer shall attend a gun safety class with his father on 8/6/22 from 8:00a.m. until the class finishes.”
The then 14-year-old would also receive “individual counseling with the focus on his social issues, his isolation and withdrawal tendencies and the impact of his neuroatypical development on his behavior and functioning.”
The alleged killer appeared in Butte Superior Court in Oroville, 75 miles north of Sacramento, on June 25, charged with two counts of murder with special circumstances.
Butte County District Attorney Michael Ramsey said Sayer had become a “fan for some time” of the 1999 Columbine High School shooting that left 12 students and one teacher dead after doing a “deep dive” into the dark web.
Ramsey said the accused also recorded a video which mentioned his plan to kill as many victims as possible. He also left a “disturbing journal.”
Sayer said he had planned to take Bradley to Las Vegas for four days on July 5 to celebrate his recent graduation from Chico High School where they had tickets to see Wizard of Oz at The Sphere and also a Cirque de Soleil show.
He was then scheduled to spend two weeks with his mother in South Carolina.
