Man taken into custody 2 hours after incident unfolds; lockdowns lifted
A report of gunfire near an elementary school in Saugus led to a barricaded situation involving a mental health crisis and a soft lockdown of that school and others on Wednesday morning.
At about 11 a.m. — two hours after the initial incident — a man emerged from the home and was detained by sheriff’s deputies.
The man was arrested on suspicion of felony negligent discharge of a firearm near a school, according to Sgt. Juan Muralles with the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station.
Additional details regarding the man’s name, age and place of residence were not readily available as of Wednesday evening, according to Sgt. Soraya Ely with the station.
As of 11:30 a.m., the elementary school just up the street from the home, James Foster Elementary School, had lifted its soft lockdown after a sheriff’s deputy called to confirm the lockdown was no longer necessary, according to a school employee who didn’t wish to be identified.
The lockdown was initiated when L.A. County Sheriff’s Department and Fire Department personnel were called to the scene at 9:02 a.m. A man had fired at least one shot toward a car that deputies believe was unoccupied at the time, according to Capt. Brandon Barclay of the SCV Sheriff’s Station.
As of about 10:45 a.m., Barclay described the scene as a “static barricaded situation,” with the man inside a home on the 22600 block of Pamplico Drive, just down the street from the school.
“As of right now, we have additional resources being deployed, and we’ll ultimately start negotiations and discuss with the individual inside and hopefully get to a peaceful resolution shortly,” he said at the time, adding no additional information was immediately available.
L.A. County Sheriff’s Department Special Enforcement Bureau personnel were called to the scene and a group of SEB deputies — the Sheriff’s Department’s SWAT detail — were flown in via the LASD’s Air Rescue 5 helicopter, which landed at Pamplico Park shortly after 10 a.m.
“During the incident, the armed male adult allegedly fired shots that struck an unoccupied vehicle. No injuries were reported,” said a Nixle statement from the SCV Sheriff’s Station. “The suspect subsequently barricaded himself inside a residence. Deputies established a containment perimeter and initiated crisis response protocols. As a precaution, nearby schools were placed on lockdown. However, there was no immediate threat to the surrounding community.”
The Nixle added: “At approximately 11 a.m., the suspect peacefully surrendered and was taken into custody without further incident. The investigation is ongoing and there is no further information available at this time.”
Robert Schwemmer, a local resident and witness to the incident, said that he was on his way to his morning walk when the man approached him and stated he needed help. The suspect then identified a woman nearby as his therapist.
The man then started to act erratically and begun to scream different things including, “don’t get the red book,” Schwemmer said. To his knowledge, the home where the man was barricaded doesn’t have a history of previous incidents, he added.
Moments later, Schwemmer heard shots being fired before responding deputies and the therapist dispersed. Not long after, a swarm of law enforcement vehicles flooded the street.
During the barricade situation, an administrative employee at James Foster Elementary confirmed the school was placed under a “soft lockdown,” meaning students could move from room to room with an escort, and that all students and employees were safe. The employee did not wish to be identified.
“We are all safe and we are on a soft lockdown, so everyone here is safe, just waiting it out,” she said at the time, before the lockdown was lifted.
Saugus Union School District Superintendent Colleen Hawkins released a statement to The Signal confirming that no students or employees were involved in the incident, and that schools close to the scene had been put on soft lockdown “out of an abundance of caution.”
“(Sheriff’s Department personnel) have asked that we let our community know why we are on soft lockdown and that we ask for families to get information from Parent Square, but not to come to the school at this time,” Hawkins said in the statement, issued before the lockdowns were lifted. “They want to keep the community safe and an abundance of traffic near the school will impede the ability for them to apprehend the suspect.”
Michael Vierra, superintendent of the William S. Hart Union High School District, confirmed that no nearby Hart district schools remained on lockdown as of about 10:30 a.m. “We were informed by law enforcement that they have a tight containment on the situation so we are able to lift lockdowns,” Vierra said in a statement sent via text message.
The scene of the incident is about a mile from Arroyo Seco Junior High School and a little over a mile and a half from Saugus High School.
This is a breaking news story and additional information will be added as it becomes available.
Reporting by Susan Monaghan, Katherine Quezada and Kamryn Martell.
