School placed on a lockdown Tuesday due to police activity
A local elementary school was placed on lockdown for several hours after a shooting near the school. School officials confirmed that at least one round hit the school, damaging a classroom.
According to the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, the shooting was reported in the area of Nelson Avenue and Valley Road, near Valley View Elementary School, at 10:26 a.m.
Valley View Elementary School Principal Zamudio wrote in a letter to parents that a stray bullet entered a classroom and hit the ceiling. No students or staff members were harmed.
The school was placed on lockdown for over four hours. Streets around the school were closed for several hours as deputies investigated.
In an on camera interview a young student accompanied by a parent falsely told News Channel 3 they saw a gunman on campus and made contact with him. That has been investigated by the school district and the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department and found that the student lied.
In response to this student’s account, CVUSD Superintendent Dr. Maria G. Gandera had this to say to News Channel 3:
” The incident the little girl mentioned in your story never happened. We have confirmed that with the student and the parent. There were police in various uniforms (plain clothes, full uniform) on campus yesterday with guns but no outsider ever came on or attempted to come onto the school yesterday – our students and staff were safe. I am sorry that you received incorrect information that has now led to the public believing false information. ”
The Sheriff’s Department said investigators found evidence that led them a possible suspect’s home not far from the school. A search warrant was served at the home but the suspect was not located.
The investigation remains ongoing and anyone with information is asked to contact Investigator Chancellor at (760)863-8946.
{“url”:”https://twitter.com/RSO/status/1176623020938383360″,”author_name”:”Riverside County Sheriff’s Dept”,”author_url”:”https://twitter.com/RSO”,”html”:”&#lt;blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”&#gt;&#lt;p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”&#gt;&#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/Coachella?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;#Coachella&#lt;/a&#gt; Final Update:&#lt;br&#gt;&#lt;br&#gt;The lockdown at Valley View Elementary has been lifted and school has been let out. There are no reported injuries and the investigation remains ongoing. No additional details are available at this time. &#lt;a href=”https://t.co/0w10UmDVRR”&#gt;https://t.co/0w10UmDVRR&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/p&#gt;— Riverside County Sheriff’s Dept (@RSO) &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/RSO/status/1176623020938383360?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;September 24, 2019&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/blockquote&#gt;n&#lt;script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″&#gt;&#lt;/script&#gt;n”,”width”:550,”height”:null,”type”:”rich”,”cache_age”:”3153600000″,”provider_name”:”Twitter”,”provider_url”:”https://twitter.com”,”version”:”1.0″}
Principal Zamudio’s letter to parents, in full:
Dear Valley View Parents,
This morning around 10:30 a.m. an incident in the community resulted in a stray bullet entering the ceiling area of a classroom. Students and staff were evaluated and there were no reported injuries. The school remained in a lockdown protocol while police and fire responded to the scene to conduct a thorough investigation. Information was sent out to school families via the district all call system earlier today, assuring that ALL students and staff were safe. Valley View Elementary School was declared safe, however, as the situation outside the school is still actively being investigated, a staged release of students began at 1:20 p.m. via a rear school gate off of Adams Road. All after school activities included ASES and Migrant Program has been cancelled [sic] for Tuesday.
We appreciate your patience and trust during this incident. Student safety is always our highest priority. School will be in session tomorrow following a normal Wednesday schedule.
Sincerely,
Mrs. Zamudio
Principal
Stay with News Channel 3 for any updates.
KESQ 2019
