Cal/OSHA Link Probed in Shooting

Sheriff’s deputies searched Tuesday for a lone gunman who shot and wounded a 49-year-old state industrial accident investigator and his 4-year-old daughter outside a Norwalk day-care center.

Investigators say they are looking into the possibility that the shooting Monday night of Joel Foss and his daughter, Adriana, was an outgrowth of a Cal/OSHA investigation that Foss was involved in.

Foss, head of Cal/OSHA’s Pico Rivera office, has led dozens of investigations, including one into an explosion at a Los Angeles toy factory. But state officials said they were unaware of any cases handled by Foss that could have led to the shooting.

Both father and daughter were described as doing well, recovering from leg wounds suffered when the gunman opened fire at the Praise Kids day-care center on Studebaker Road.

“There is no known motive,” said Deputy Michael Irving. He said it was clear that someone was after the father. “There may be a connection between his employment with Cal/OSHA and his being the intended target of the shooting. However, we have been unable to confirm that. That lead is being investigated.”

Cal/OSHA spokesman Dean Fryer said Foss headed an office that was in charge of investigating a variety of industrial-type accidents.

But, he said, “nothing out of the ordinary” was reported at the office.

Investigators said the shooting occurred at 5:37 p.m. as Foss was helping his daughter into the family car, which was parked in a driveway alongside the school.

The school, with an enrollment of about 50 preschoolers, closes at 6 p.m. and most of the children had already left, although there were an undisclosed number still waiting for their parents.

“A large, light-colored, four-door sedan drove alongside them,” Irving said. “The driver of that vehicle fired several shots at the victims, striking each of them in the lower body.” The gunman fled in the car.

Foss and his daughter were taken to local hospitals, which authorities refused to disclose.

The shooting shocked students and teachers at the Christian preschool, said administrators, who described the school as very peaceful.

“We’ve never had any kind of problem like this before,” said Pastor Jim Jenkins of the Church on Studebaker Road, which operates the school.

School director Tina Simons said she heard the shots and immediately ran outside. Simons said she knew immediately that the father and daughter “needed help.”

“I grabbed the baby, and drove her to the emergency room,” Simons said. Another school worker, Mary Brown, stayed with Joel Foss until paramedics arrived. The school employees said four to five shots were fired.