Sheriff’s deputies converged on a Valencia intersection in more than half a dozen patrol cars Tuesday, responding to a witness report of an attempted assault by a man armed with a butcher knife — but it turned out to be nothing.
Deputies found no evidence of an assault or even a crime on Valencia Boulevard near the Islands Restaurant across the street from the Westfield Valencia Town Center mall.
The report of a butcher knife was actually misinformation in reference to a butter knife and reports of an assault were misconstrued, said Lt. Andy Dahring of the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station.
“There was no crime,” he said.
Nevertheless, responding deputies treated the reports of an assault seriously.
A couple of deputies grabbed long-barrel firearms as a tactical response until learning the assault report was downgraded to events misconstrued by a witness who called the SCV Sheriff’s Station.
Despite the lights and sirens of patrol cars backed up, bumper to bumper, in the entrance to the Kohl’s parking lot off of Valencia Boulevard, between Islands Restaurant and Pei Wei restaurant, no one was hurt or arrested.
Tuesday’s incident is reminiscent of one at College of the Canyons in mid-January. Reports of a woman seen pulling a rifle from a bush on the COC campus prompted a lockdown of the campus and a structure-to-structure on-campus search by sheriff’s deputies.
When it was all over, though, the reports of a woman with a rifle turned out to be a woman seen gathering sticks on campus for her child’s school assignment.
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