The man wanted for making a school shooting threat at a Big 5 Sporting Goods store on Friday apologized for the incident he said was a joke, and was placed into protective custody by San Mateo police Monday.
San Mateo police received a call Monday afternoon from an allied agency referring them to the man who made the threatening statement. Police located and interviewed him and he said he was joking. He is at a hospital for a mental health evaluation and a threat assessment, according to police.
Police had increased their presence at more than 30 schools in the county and had been in touch with most of them, according to police Sgt. Amanda Von Glahn.
Because the threat was not immediate, police did not activate the “Big Five” emergency protocol. The program outlines five different alert levels and is used across in schools the country. Von Glahn said police set up a game plan with several schools over the weekend.
Von Glahn said the threat was nonspecific and there was no immediate danger to schools, so they did not ask campuses to shelter in place or go under lockdowns.
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Campuses decided what they felt was appropriate, she said. St. Gregory School is one campus that instituted a voluntary shelter-in-place Monday.
The police and school coordination began after it was reported a customer at the Big 5 Sporting Goods store on South El Camino Real called police around 5:50 p.m. Friday saying he overheard another customer tell an employee he wanted to purchase a firearm and shoot up a school, asking the clerk for a good shirt to wear.
The employee did not sell a gun to the man, according to police.
Officers responded within minutes and searched the store, but they didn’t find the man. According to police, the witnesses didn’t find the man’s statements to be credible.
In what they described as “an abundance of caution,” San Mateo police asked on Friday for the public’s help in identifying the man. His identity is not being released because of the confidential nature of the mental health evaluation, according to police.
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Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
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Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
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