VISTA - Panicked parents cried as they hugged bewildered kids Friday afternoon, three hours after reports of gunfire near two Vista schools sparked campus lockdowns and a massive hunt as authorities searched for a possible shooter.
View A VideoSheriff's deputies - who combed the campuses, but found no evidence of any gunfire - detained but later released one man spotted in the area around the time that people heard what officials said were three loud bangs.
"As of right now, we have no crime," said Detective Sgt. Art Wager as adults were reunited with their children in front of Olive Elementary School. "There's no indication there has been any crime or incident. It could have been fireworks. It could have been tools."
The scare had scores of parents, many of them in tears and clutching cell phones, pacing helpless for nearly three hours down the street from Olive Elementary and Washington Middle School, trying to peer past the yellow crime-scene tape that held them a block away from their kids.
After they were returned to their families, a pair of Olive Elementary students - one in first grade, one in second grade - said that some of their classmates had wet their pants during the ordeal, and that others had to relieve themselves in trash cans because they were not allowed to leave their classrooms.
In front of the school, 7-year-old Sienna Bell was covered in kisses from her mother and other family members.
"They knocked on the door, saying 'open up, it's the sheriff,' " Sienna said, describing what had happened in her second-grade classroom. The little girl said that while she was in the classroom, she feared "the bad guy" was going to come in through a window.
Three unrelated events
Such fear erupted shortly after 11 a.m., with armed deputies sweeping through Vista campuses as students sat under tables and desks inside classrooms. Soon more than 100 law enforcement officers were on the scene.
The uproar was provoked by the confluence of what authorities later said were probably three unrelated events:
After a parent entered the campus without school authorization, Olive school officials placed the campus in lockdown mode - no one allowed off or on school grounds, with children locked in the classrooms, Wagner said.
As that was happening, people heard three loud bangs. And, at about the same time, three witnesses saw what deputies described as a suspicious-looking, disheveled man near the school.
School officials "naturally associated" the separate events, prompting a call to the Sheriff's Department, Wager said. He said "every available unit" in the area responded to the call.
After the initial report, at least seven other public and private schools in Vista took precautions to safeguard students, authorities said.
Parents on edge
The troubles capped a jittery week at North County campuses. Graffiti that warned of school shootings was discovered at three inland campuses on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. In addition to the Vista scare, an unsubstantiated report Friday of a man with a gun sparked a 20-minute lockdown at Ditmar Elementary School in Oceanside. In San Marcos, police went on high alert after a robbery at a store near Mission Hills High School.
In Vista, nearly three hours after the reports of gunfire, authorities gave parents the OK to head to the school to retrieve their kids. At that instant, dozens of people who had gathered at the corner of Melrose Drive and Olive Avenue raced up the street to the schools.
Parent Molly Guy cried as she stood in a line outside the elementary campus, anxiously waiting to see her kids, one of whom was in kindergarten.
"I just want to see my kids," Guy said, her whole body trembling. "We were told our kids are OK, but they don't know our kids. They could be crying and scared. Maybe that's 'OK' in their book, but not in mine."
Armando Duque, an eighth-grade boy from Washington Middle School, who said he spent much of the lockdown under his desk, put his arm around his crying mother as they walked to their car.
Waiting for information
Earlier Friday, with as many as four helicopters circling, frustrated parents waiting near the schools grimaced as they placed cell phone calls and asked news reporters for any information. Snippets of news and rumors raced through the crowd.
One mother, Melanie Weathers, fought tears as she waited to see her 6-year-old daughter, who attends kindergarten at the campus.
"I don't know for sure if she's OK," Weathers said. "All I know is what I've heard around here."
Weathers she learned of the incident from her mother, Marian Herndon, after Herndon had gone to the school to pick up Weathers' daughter.
Herndon frowned as she spoke of her concern for her granddaughter, Larissa Fry.
"I know she's scared to death. I can feel it," Herndon said. "But I don't know what I'm going to tell her. They don't understand. What do you say to them?"
Some parents said they had raced to the school after hearing news reports of possible shootings. Others said the sounds of sirens speeding toward the schools prompted them to come running.
After the all-clear, dozens of parents waited anxiously to pick up their children in front of the elementary school, at the corner of Olive and Maryland Drive.
"It's traumatizing," Jason Loman, the father of a kindergarten student at the school. "You never think it's going to hit this close to home."
Even though he had heard that no children were injured, Loman said he was still nervous. When he and his wife, Eva, finally retrieved their kindergartner, Adam, they said they felt a wave of relief.
"He can do whatever he wants tonight," Loman said.
Extra playtime
And what did Adam say he was looking forward to doing? Homework.
Adam said he was not scared and felt safe throughout the day as the class played with toys.
"Some were scared; some were not scared," he said of his classmates.
Kindergarten student Kiley Gaskin said there weren't many frightened kids in her class.
"There were cops coming into my school," she said with a weary frown. "Teacher said, 'Don't open the door.' "
Some parents, including Kiley's mother, Sheryl Gaskin, complained about the lack of communication from the school district and Sheriff's Department, saying she didn't hear from the school about the situation until about 1:45 p.m.
"It's very nerve-racking," she said of the different rumors and stories that were circulating among the tense parents. "We just heard so much unreal information."
Lt. Phil Brust, spokesman with the San Diego Sheriff's Department, said that deputies and officers went from room to room in the schools. Talking to reporters in front of a crush of parents, Brust also said deputies were looking for a weapon, but had recovered none.
"We understand the parents' concern," Brust said. "Our immediate concern is the kids. We will reunite them with you as quickly as we can."
Man detained, released
Detectives detained a 48-year-old man who was seen in the area. He was questioned at the Vista Sheriff's Station. They later determined he had nothing to do with the incident and released him at about 3:15 p.m.
The man's sister arrived at the station just before his release and was there to take him away. Cynthia Alvarez told reporters that her brother had struggled with mental illness since he was a teenager, but she said he was not violent.
She said she felt that he was only detained because of his appearance.
"He has no guns, no weapons whatsoever," Alvarez said of her older brother. "It was horrible that they detained him. I think it's very wrong."
Sheriff's Sgt. Mark Varnau said some witnesses had seen him in the area of the school and that's why he was questioned.
Varnau said the man had been "very cooperative."
"He's been treated very well and been very patient," Varnau said. "He was in the wrong place at the wrong time."
Tense week at North County schools
With memories of the massacre at Virginia Tech less than three weeks old, the Vista incident punctuated a week of tensions at North County schools.
In Ramona on Wednesday, authorities said a 16-year-old boy took a new pellet handgun to a school bus stop, prompting lockdowns at four schools. Sheriff's Sgt. Rick Turvey said that the Ramona High School junior didn't threaten anyone with the realistic-looking Airsoft replica gun, but Turvey said he may face charges.
Three times this week, local law enforcement agencies were at schools in the Poway Unified School District, after graffiti threatening a school shooting was found scrawled in bathrooms.
And on Friday, two second-grade students at Ditmar Elementary in Oceanside playing during recess reported seeing a man with a possible gun.
The report prompted a 20-minute lockdown. Police interviewed students and searched the school's perimeter and campus, but found no suspicious activity, said Ditmar Principal Frank Balanon.
In Vista, the report of possible shots fired not only shut down Olive and Washington, but the nearby Vista Focus Academy, as well as Maryland Elementary, the Vista Academy of Visual and Performing Arts, California Avenue School and Guajome Park Academy. Also on lockdown were the private schools Vista Christian and Tri-City Christian.
At Vista Christian school just a few blocks away, Principal Michael Slocum intercepted parents as they drove toward the school's entrance to explain that campus had been locked down. The small school runs monthly disaster drills, he said, so the procedure was familiar to administrators.
"Since Columbine, all the rules have changed," Slocum told a reporter. "You stay prepared. You never know what's going to happen."
- Staff writers Stacy Brandt, Yvette Urrea and Craig TenBroeck contributed to this report. Contact staff writer Teri Figueroa at (760) 631-6624 or tfigueroa@nctimes.com.
