A man who barged into his child’s southern California elementary school and allegedly held a 70-year-old teacher hostage for nearly seven hours was on Tuesday shot by police who forced their way into a classroom and rescued her.
A SWAT team entered the room at Castle View Elementary School, east of Los Angeles, shortly before 6pm, Officer Ryan Railsback said.
Negotiators had been talking to the man, but had not heard from the woman.
“We, of course, had been fearing for the hostage’s life all day,” Railsback said, but the decision to hurl distracting flash-bang grenades and storm the classroom was made because “the fear for her safety was increasing.”
Students were at lunch and were not in the classroom when the man barricaded himself inside with the teacher, Riverside Unified School District spokesman Justin Grayson said.
The man was seen being wheeled away on a gurney into an ambulance. There was no immediate word on his condition.
The teacher was sent to a hospital for examination, but did not appear to be injured, Railsback said.
Family members and the school identified her as first-grade instructor Linda Montgomery, who had taught at the school for about 20 years.
“She’s really good with kids,” her granddaughter, Ariana Montgomery, told KABC-TV. “She’s really helpful and sweet.”
It was not clear what prompted the man to enter the school shortly before 11:15am and barricade himself with the teacher, and it was not immediately known whether he had a weapon, although he did bring a backpack onto campus, Railsback said.
The suspect had suffered an “emotional breakdown” that morning, his uncle Carl Jackson told the TV station.
“He’s not dangerous,” Jackson said before the standoff ended. “It’s just a matter of getting in there and talking to him, because we can talk to him.”
The man had barged into the school office, where he failed to sign in, and was later seen grabbing the teacher.
The husband of another teacher was on campus and tried to intervene, but the suspect punched him in the face, knocking him down and breaking his nose, Railsback said.
Students were initially kept inside their classrooms before being ordered to evacuate to a local park, walking down the street in a long line.
All students were safely accounted for, but school was canceled for the rest of the week, the school district said.
Former Nicaraguan president Violeta Chamorro, who brought peace to Nicaragua after years of war and was the first woman elected president in the Americas, died on Saturday at the age of 95, her family said. Chamorro, who ruled the poor Central American country from 1990 to 1997, “died in peace, surrounded by the affection and love of her children,” said a statement issued by her four children. As president, Chamorro ended a civil war that had raged for much of the 1980s as US-backed rebels known as the “Contras” fought the leftist Sandinista government. That conflict made Nicaragua one of
COMPETITION: The US and Russia make up about 90 percent of the world stockpile and are adding new versions, while China’s nuclear force is steadily rising, SIPRI said Most of the world’s nuclear-armed states continued to modernize their arsenals last year, setting the stage for a new nuclear arms race, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said yesterday. Nuclear powers including the US and Russia — which account for about 90 percent of the world’s stockpile — had spent time last year “upgrading existing weapons and adding newer versions,” researchers said. Since the end of the Cold War, old warheads have generally been dismantled quicker than new ones have been deployed, resulting in a decrease in the overall number of warheads. However, SIPRI said that the trend was likely
BOMBARDMENT: Moscow sent more than 440 drones and 32 missiles, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, in ‘one of the most terrifying strikes’ on the capital in recent months A nighttime Russian missile and drone bombardment of Ukraine killed at least 15 people and injured 116 while they slept in their homes, local officials said yesterday, with the main barrage centering on the capital, Kyiv. Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko said 14 people were killed and 99 were injured as explosions echoed across the city for hours during the night. The bombardment demolished a nine-story residential building, destroying dozens of apartments. Emergency workers were at the scene to rescue people from under the rubble. Russia flung more than 440 drones and 32 missiles at Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy
Indonesia’s Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki yesterday erupted again with giant ash and smoke plumes after forcing evacuations of villages and flight cancelations, including to and from the resort island of Bali. Several eruptions sent ash up to 5km into the sky on Tuesday evening to yesterday afternoon. An eruption on Tuesday afternoon sent thick, gray clouds 10km into the sky that expanded into a mushroom-shaped ash cloud visible as much as 150km kilometers away. The eruption alert was raised on Tuesday to the highest level and the danger zone where people are recommended to leave was expanded to 8km from the crater. Officers also
RSS