A Redwood City school was placed on lockdown on Wednesday afternoon after what police believe was a false report of a gunman on its campus.
Police responded to North Star Academy, on the 400 block of Duane Street, at about 1:30 p.m. after receiving reports from school staff that a man had arrived there claiming he was being pursued by a man with a gun, and that the gunman had run through the school’s campus.
The campus was locked down and a “heavy police presence was established to address the potential threat,” according to a Redwood City Police Department press release.
The school is part of the Redwood City Elementary School District and serves about 527 students in grades three to eight, according to the California Department of Education.
After interviewing the man, who police identified in a press release as 32-year-old Redwood City resident Eddi Gonzalezgarcia, and reviewing surveillance footage, officers determined his story was untrue. They also suspected him of being under the influence of stimulants, leading to his arrest.
A spokesperson for the Redwood City Police Department, Lt. Jeff Clements, said Gonzalezgarcia’s name could be spelled with a hyphen or space between his two last names, but variations in dispatch and arrest records made it hard to accurately identify him, as he had no ID when he was taken into custody.
Clements said the school was locked down for less than an hour before being declared safe.
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