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)
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? A Santa Monica gunman who killed five people last week was hospitalized for psychiatric evaluation in 2006 after police found bomb-making materials at his home.
Police searched the house where John Zawahri lived with his father after the teen made repeated violent threats against students, teachers and campus security officers at Olympic High School, retired police officer Cristina Coria, who helped execute the search warrant, said Tuesday.
Coria said she didn't know what was found at the house or the outcome of that mental evaluation.
Oscar de la Torre, a member of the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified school board, told The Associated Press that police had discovered bomb-making materials at the home.
The school board was briefed by school administrators after police found Zawahri was learning to make explosives by downloading instructions from YouTube, de la Torre said.
"It was some type of devices or materials that would be able to make explosives, and the word 'pipe bombs' was what was referred to," he said. "If it was guns and stuff like that it would have been more serious, but because it was explosives, it wasn't deemed 'Oh my God,' just that this guy had a fascination."
Investigators are looking at his police history, along with a stormy family life, to determine what led to the chaotic shooting Friday on a Southern California college campus. The encounter seven years ago appeared to be the last reported run-in Zawahri had with police until he died in a shootout with officers Friday.
Santa Monica police Sgt. Richard Lewis said a pipe was found in the home, but declined to provide more details because Zawahri was a juvenile at the time.
Zawahri wasn't expelled, but he didn't finish classes at Olympic High ? a school for students who have academic or disciplinary issues. Lyon said Zawahri attended the school for six months during 2006.
Zawahri, 23, shot his father, Samir Zawahri, 55, and his brother Christopher Zawahri, 25, on Friday, leaving their home in flames before shooting at strangers in cars and at Santa Monica College, in a 15-minute rampage that occurred as students were taking final exams and ended with John Zawahri fatally shot by officers in the college library.
The victims included a campus groundskeeper and his daughter, who was a student at the college, and a woman collecting cans outside the library.
Graduation was held Tuesday at the college where jittery students returned Monday. Commencement ceremonies were punctuated by a moment of silence as graduates and their families, along with administrators and faculty, stood and paused on the campus football field.
"We have come together as a community to heal and to pay homage to the victims," said the school's president, Chui L. Tsang, according to City News Service.
Meanwhile, two unrelated shootings on Tuesday kept the beachside community on edge.
Many questions remained for returning students as investigators examined how Zawahri had access to an assault-style rifle, an old revolver and 1,300 rounds of ammunition that he'd carried with him.
De la Torre, who was a neighbor of Zawahri, said the gunman's father told him he was having problems with his son eight months ago.
"They didn't talk to a lot of people, they were very reserved," de la Torre said. "One time he did tell me he had problems with his younger son, knowing I work with youth. He never went into detail about anything."
Zawahri took classes in video game design, animation, and other technology-related subjects at Santa Monica College in 2009 and 2010. He had no disciplinary issues at the school.
Coria was a campus resource officer teaching a seminar on bullying and reporting threats at Olympic High in 2006 when she first took notice of Zawahri sitting at the back of a classroom.
"I remember him specifically because he had the long hair," Coria said. "He had the black outfit on, the black trench coat, the black boots. He was very thin. He just had that isolated look."
She said another campus officer warned her afterward to keep an eye on Zawahri because he had been taken in by campus police for making threats.
A teacher saw "disturbing behavior, conversations around weapons and violence," district superintendent Sandra Lyon said.
Zawahri was held by a hospital for psychiatric evaluation after the search of his home, Coria said. Once a person is held for such an exam, they cannot access or possess firearms for five years.
In the case of Zawahri, that prohibition would have expired in 2011.
Investigators were trying to determine whether problems in the Zawahri family played a role in the killings.
Zawahri's mother, Randa Abdou, said in a 1998 court filing seeking a restraining order that her husband had threatened to kill her twice and became abusive five years into their marriage after she had moved from Lebanon to join him in the U.S. Abdou has not spoken to the media.
Wendy Parise, who had Zawahri in her preschool class, remembers the 4-year-old as a "sad little boy" who was "very timid, withdrawn and very sensitive."
In 1993, Zawahri's mother contacted the school terrified and desperate. She told them "her husband had pulled a knife on her and her boys," Parise said. The school sent her to a local battered women's shelter.
"Now I look back and I think he was traumatized as a child, he was living through all of that, and part of me thinks, what happened to this boy in subsequent years?" Parise said. "That family was poisoned and he lived in a poisonous environment, and that was devastating."
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Associated Press writers Amy Taxin, Michael R. Blood, Anthony McCartney contributed to this story. Tami Abdollah can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/latams .
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