Student Brings 'Gun' To Santa Rosa High School Prompting Lockdown

SANTA ROSA, CA — Frantic parents were reunited with their Santa Rosa High School students Friday afternoon as police announced at 1:21 p.m. that an hours-long lockdown was lifted and a student accused of bringing a gun to school was in custody. The Santa Rosa Police Department called for an immediate lockdown of the campus at about 10:40 a.m. Friday after a student ran to the office and told administrators he saw a fellow student holding a handgun in the music building, Santa Rosa police Lt. Ryan Corcoran said in a news release.

The student witness "provided highly credible information" and told school officials he saw the suspect rack the slide of the handgun, Corcoran said.

When administrators relayed the suspect information to School Resource Officer Matt Crosbie, Corcoran said Crosbie knew exactly who the 15-year-old suspect was.

Crosbie called for an immediate lockdown of campus and for back-up officers, then ran to the music building but the suspect was gone. Additional officers arrived within seconds; within five minutes, more than 13 officers were at the campus and as the incident unfolded, more than 30 officers responded, Corcoran said.

Simultaneously, the Santa Rosa Police Department sent a Nixle alert about the lockdown stating students and staff would remain locked in their classrooms until further notice. Parents were told not to respond to the campus. In a series of Nixle alerts, parents were directed to respond to the nearby Big Lots parking lot and then to Santa Rosa Junior College where officers were staged for the purpose of keeping parents up to date.

At 11:59 a.m., officers responded to the McDonald's across the street from the high school based on information that as the lockdown was being initiated, the suspect may have left campus and went to McDonald's.

Video surveillance confirmed the suspect did go to McDonald's; however, he was gone when officers got there and they could not determine whether he returned to campus, Corcoran said.

Then, at 12:48 p.m., a Sonoma County sheriff’s deputy found the suspect. He was at Beaver and Benson streets in a neighborhood adjacent to the high school.

The suspect, who was not identified because of his age, was taken into custody by the deputy without further incident.

When questioned by a Santa Rosa police detective about where the gun was, the suspect said he took it apart and put it in the trash at McDonald's. When retrieved from the trash, the gun was determined to be a realistic-looking replica firearm with a functioning slide that shoots pellets or BBs, Corcoran said.

With the "gun" in hand, the lockdown was lifted.

The suspect was taken to the Santa Rosa Police Department and was expected to be booked into the Sonoma County Juvenile Justice Center for the alleged violation of bringing a weapon onto school grounds.

Graduation was planned for Friday night at the high school on Mendocino Avenue. It was also the last day of school.

Santa Rosa High School seniors who were practicing the graduation ceremony on the athletic field were quickly moved into the gymnasium after the 10:50 a.m. report about someone with a gun, Santa Rosa City Schools District spokeswoman Beth Berk told Bay City News Service.

The school district office and Ridgway High School, which was holding its graduation ceremony for 160 students, were also locked down, Berk told the wire service, adding that school administrators will contact Ridgway students who did not receive their diplomas during the interrupted ceremony.

The possible-gun-on-campus incident added stress to the last day of school, Berk told the media outlet. Students of both high schools may drop in for counseling at Santa Rosa High School between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. on Monday, she said.