What a Day!

[Willowdared]

By Karen Kucher and Debbi Farr Baker
UNION-TRIBUNE BREAKING NEWS TEAM
2:00 p.m. May 4, 2007
VISTA – A report of gunfire at Olive Elementary School prompted eight local schools to be locked down late Friday morning and into the afternoon, as sheriff's deputies detained one man.

EDUARDO CONTRERAS / Union-Tribune
Sheriff's deputies Friday conduct a room-to-room search of the Vista Focus Academy school on Melrose Drive in Vista.
Sheriff's Lt. Phil Brust told reporters that deputies found no evidence that shots were fired. No students were injured and no weapons were found.

Officials from Vista Unified School District said that parents will be required to show identification before they can pick up their children at the affected schools.

At 2:15 p.m. parents were allowed to line up on the Olive Elementary School campus to start the process of taking their children home.

At Washington Middle School, officials said students will be kept on campus until the regular dismissal time of 3:20 p.m. However, parents or guardians with identification can pick them up before that time.

The initial report came in around 11:18 a.m. when an adult at Olive Elementary reported hearing what sounded like three gunshots in the back part of the school in a field area, Brust said.

Witnesses told authorities they saw a suspicious-looking man on campus, who was described as white, dirty, with long hair. Deputies later detained a man on West Vista Way and Melrose Drive who matched the suspect's description, Brust said.
The school was immediately locked down by officials, and within a short period of time, officials at seven other schools in the area closed their campuses. At least 40 patrol cars were sent to the area and deputies searched the campuses room by room.

“All of the kids are safe with their teachers. Hopefully they are going about their usual school day,” Brust said around 1:20 p.m.

The schools on lockdown include: Olive Elementary and Washington Middle School on Olive Ave, Vista Focus Academy on North Melrose Drive, Maryland Elementary on North Ave and Vista Academy of Visual and Performing Arts on Santa Fe Avenue. Also locked down were St. Francis Catholic School, an elementary school, and both Tri-City Christian elementary and high schools.

School buses from other schools that normally would drop off students in the area were being diverted to the Vista Unified district office, at 1234 Arcadia Ave., Vista.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/n...bn04vista.html

Slideshow:

http://www.10news.com/slideshow/slid...46/detail.html

[Willowdared]

Video:

http://www.cbs8.com/

Click on "Reports of Shots Fired Cause Panic at Vista Schools"

[mavriktu]

Were you on the radio??thats a byutch,the day after Virginia Tech we had 4 schools go into lock down,major pain in the ass.Arrests made though,and La. has a "Terrorizing" law that has some bite to it.

[conalabu]

That had to have been a mess to dispatch, P. Anything further about what happened?

[jato]

I am glad I was off! I'm sure there was lots of standing around to be had.

[Willowdared]

Wasn't my radio....sent some of my guys to help though.

I will post an update when there is more, but it looks like it was not valid.

We also had a CSO injured in an unrelated event.

[conalabu]

How bad, P?

[Willowdared]

Schools in lockdown

Police find no evidence that rounds were fired

By Kristina Davis and Matthew Rodriguez
STAFF WRITERS

May 5, 2007

VISTA – A report of gunfire at Olive Elementary School yesterday left hundreds of parents to imagine the worst as they gathered behind police lines for hours, awaiting news of their children inside.

Their anxiety turned to relief when the Sheriff's Department announced that it didn't appear any shots had been fired after all, and that all the children were safely locked inside their classrooms.

“There is no physical evidence to suggest rounds were fired on campus today,” sheriff's Lt. Phil Brust said yesterday afternoon.

“Thank God!” exclaimed one tearful mother as the good news filtered through the dense crowd of parents.

The call of possible gunshots came at 11:18 a.m. Parents were unable to reach their children for several hours as officials called for lockdowns at eight schools within a 1-mile radius of Olive Elementary, including three private schools. The schools have a total enrollment of more than 5,000.

At some schools, children were instructed to stay under their desks for a couple of hours while officers searched each classroom.

Hundreds gathered on street corners, calling relatives on cell phones or sending text messages to their children to make sure they were all right.

The crowds watched as law enforcement officers from around North County descended on the area, accompanied by firetrucks and ambulances.

The scare came at the end of a week of threats at several campuses across the county that a shooting would occur. Warnings had been scrawled on walls or on pieces of paper in bathrooms at six schools, most recently at Twin Peaks Middle School in Poway yesterday.

San Diego Unified school police Chief Don Braun said yesterday that three students from Correia Middle School and the School of Creative and Performing Arts have been arrested on suspicion of scrawling threats on campus buildings.

The threats also came on the heels of the Virginia Tech massacre.

“That's what makes it so scary,” said Marianne Herndon, who waited at a 7-Eleven on Olive Avenue in Vista, with hundreds of other parents.

At the end of the day, Vista Unified sent an automatic voice message to district parents from Superintendent Joyce Bales. “Principals and teachers did an excellent job of taking care of our children,” she said. “Our most important job is to make sure our children are safe and feel secure.”

The day started when an adult at Olive Elementary reported hearing what sounded like three gunshots in a field behind the school, Brust said.

At the same time, a person, possibly a parent, entered Olive Elementary without authorization to pick up a student, Sgt. Art Wager said. Moments later, a school employee reported a suspicious person in front of the school.

Witnesses described the man as white, dirty, with long hair. Deputies detained a man who matched the description but released him when it was determined he had nothing to do with the incident, Brust said.

In addition to Olive Elementary, locked-down schools were: Washington Middle School, Vista Focus Academy, Vista Academy of Visual and Performing Arts, Maryland Elementary, Tri-City Christian elementary and high schools, and St. Francis Catholic School.

“We spent about two hours under our desks,” said Monica Bailey, an eighth-grader at Washington Middle. “I didn't know what was going on. I was crying.”

Carlos Villalobo, an eighth-grader, said his mother sent him photos of the deputies and a helicopter flying overhead.

One parent reached her child's teacher and talked briefly with her 7-year-old son on a cell phone. “I just asked him if he was OK,” said Andrea Apodaca. He told her he was scared and he loved her, she said.

After deputies searched the schools, parents were instructed they could pick up their children if they had photo identification.

“Children don't deserve this,” said parent Jason Loman as he and his wife, Eva, waited for their 5-year-old son. “They're here to learn, not be scared.”

Chuck Taylor, chief operating officer for Vista Unified, commended the schools for following procedures and said district officials plan to meet with the Sheriff's Department next week to discuss yesterday's response. Last night, San Diego Police Chief William Lansdowne, Mayor Jerry Sanders, District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis and local school superintendents held a news conference to assure parents they were doing everything possible to keep schools safe.

Those arrested face suspension or expulsion and possible criminal charges that could result in time in the California Youth Authority.

Officials said graffiti threats of shooting and bombings at San Diego schools were pranks, some of them copycat acts. Such graffiti has also been found at Kearny High and Serra High in San Diego, Poway High School and Rancho Bernardo High School.

[Willowdared]

How bad, P?

http://www.nbcsandiego.com/slideshow...54/detail.html

He was released last night with minor injuries.