Sep 11, 2006 7:04 pm US/Pacific
Backpack Of Guns Found Near Central Valley School
LIVINGSTON (CBS 5 / AP) ―
Bomb sniffing dogs failed to discover any additional weapons at a rural Merced County school where a blue backpack bulging with guns was found nearby earlier Monday.
A man looking for aluminum cans in trash cans found the backpack containing three handguns and an SKS assault rifle across the street from the Delhi Educational Facility, a combined high school and middle school with about 1,000 students.
Merced County Sheriff Mark Pazin said the assault rifle was sitting out in the open and all three handguns were found in what appeared to be a children's backpack.
The 9 a.m. discovery triggered a school lockdown, meaning teachers kept students in their classrooms, while authorities searched for more weapons.
For the next several hours, sheriff's deputies and area police officers conducted "a systematic search of the whole facility, looking at pretty much every bush, every trash can," Sheriff's Deputy Ed Katen said. The search efforts included "every classroom, every office on the property," he explained.
Throughout the day, several roads leading to the school building were blocked by police cars and no one was seen entering or exiting the facility.
School district spokesman Jay Serratore said the students, who spent the day hunkered down in the school's gymnasium, were released at 3 p.m. He said bomb-sniffing dogs that searched classrooms and offices found nothing else suspicious on the campus.
Deputy Katen declined to speculate about how the guns came to the campus, or whether they pointed to a foiled plot. There were no injuries.
"We're disappointed something like this would happen on this particular day when we should be solemn on the 9/11 anniversary," he said. "We hope it's not someone's sick and demented way to bring attention to themselves, given the date."
The school, located near an orchard, is in an unincorporated agricultural area of Merced County.
(© 2006 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
Real-Time Traffic Conditions | 
Web Cam Network
Click to enlarge
Stumble It!
Comments