(Reuters) - One person was killed and five others wounded when a gunman opened fire on Wednesday at a motel and at least three other locations across the Phoenix suburb of Mesa, police said.
Police fanned out across the city searching for the gunman, described as a man in his 40s with a tattoo on his neck who fled in a car and remained at large, Mesa police spokesman Esteban Flores said.
The shooter began in a room at a motel, across the street from a trade school in Mesa, and then opened fire at other locations in the city, less than 15 miles east of Phoenix, Flores told reporters.
"We don't know the motive. We know there was some type of argument at the first location, at the motel," Flores told reporters, adding that six people were shot in total, including one person who died and another who was in critical condition at a hospital.
Dozens of police officers stood at the site of the first shooting - the Tri-City Inn motel and an adjacent tattoo parlor.
The East Valley Institute of Technology, the trade school near where the shooting started, and nearby Mesa Community College were placed on lockdown as a precaution due to the shooting, the campuses said on their Twitter pages.
Arizona Governor Doug Ducey said in a statement that he had spoken to the mayor of Mesa and offered the support and resources of the state, including the Department of Public Safety, in handling the shooting.
"Right now, our hearts and prayers are with the people of Mesa, the individuals affected by this tragedy, and all law enforcement and first responders working to assist the victims," Ducey said.
(Additional reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis and Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles; Editing by Cynthia Johnston, Lisa Lambert and Bill Trott)
