Gun threats disrupt L.A. area schools; student detained

Anonymous calls and threats made to schools in the Los Angeles area disrupted classes and created confusion Thursday morning as police descend on campuses placed on lockdown.

Several law enforcement agencies -- the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, the California Highway Patrol and Los Angeles, Monterey Park and Santa Monica police -- tried to sort out the threats and determine their legitwhether they are legitimate.

There are variations to the threats. In Monterey Park, a gunman threatened to shoot up a large, unspecified school, which prompted the evacuation of East L.A. College and numerous schools in the area.

Monterey Park police Chief Jim Smith said he had deployed 12 to 14 officers to all 10 public schools.

A woman who answered the phone at Alhambra Unified School District headquarters said that the Monterey Park schools in the Alhambra district had been locked down on the advice of police.

In Santa Monica, authorities said a caller suggested that a 19-year-old man would be on the campus of Santa Monica College with a gun and might kill himself.

Several others schools were also directly threatened, sources close to the investigation said.

Santa Monica College was placed on lockdown as were numerous other campuses on the Westside, including Will Rogers Elementary School and John Adams Middle School.

Richard Medina, a third-year student at East L.A. College, said he was heading to his 8:30 a.m. class when a police officer turned him away. Medina waited in a nearby Carl’s Jr. parking lot with other students.

“Right now they’re just saying there’s an emergency evacuation,” he said. “The parking lot is full of students. A lot of them are being turned back and waiting right here to see what’s going on.”

Medina said he had spotted about six helicopters overhead, along with officers from the sheriff’s department, CHP and Monterey Park police. Police are “all over the area,” he said.

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