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Garden Grove Shooting: Schools On Lockdown After Gunshots In Neighborhood [Breaking]

By Zachary Volkert
Published on: 06:37 PST, Dec 10, 2015

Update: The Garden Grove shooting turned out to be nothing of the sort. Carlos Villanueva, 27, was eventually arrested while attempting to flee from authorities. Law enforcement had surrounded the home he had re-entered after firing the shots that initially worried locals.

Others exiting the house refused to co-operate with investigators on the scene. He was taken in on “suspicion of discharging a firearm in a negligent manner, assault with a deadly weapon/firearm and criminal threats.” As of now, there’s no evidence he planned any sort of violent action; and thus, “Garden Grove shooting” appears to have been more of a scare than anything else.

Reports of a Garden Grove shooting put seven local schools on lockdown this morning according to local law enforcement.

Ernest O. Lawrence, Stanford, Louis G. Zeyen, and Faylane elementary schools; Our Redeemer Pre-School; Rancho Alamitos High School and Alamitos Intermediate were all put on lockdown following the reports of shots fired in Garden Grove.

shooting at Garden Grove puts on lockdown
Fears of a Garden Grove shooting grew out of control today when a man walking along Blanche Avenue fired a shotgun into the air. While it turned out to be nothing, the rapid response of police and local schools is telling of the age we now live in. (Source: Google Maps)

The call first came out around 8:40 a.m. Classes have since returned to normal scheduling, and even when the Garden Grove lockdown was in effect, it was a modified one: meaning students could still move within the school building, just not travel outside its walls.

ABC 7 reported that an unnamed suspect shot into the air multiple times in Garden Grove at Blanche Avenue east of Dale Street before walking away carrying a shotgun. Thus far, no injuries have been reported.

Authorities are now saying that it appears that there was no kind of mass shooting involved in the Garden Grove incident, thought they still have not revealed where the problem may have originated. A suspect is, however, in custody, according to tweets from local Garden Grove media.

Details have not yet been revealed of the nature of the gunshots, although police are confident that there is no longer a threat to the area. Parents of students who attended the schools that were put on lockdown in the Garden Grove area expressed their relief on social media.

schools in Garden grove shooting shut down
A few dozen miles south of Los Angeles, Garden Grove today was the site of a few shots fired into the air that turned out to be not much of anything — but with a nation fearful of mass shootings, local schools all went into lockdown when the event took place. (Source: Google Maps)

Garden Grove is a city in Orange County to the south of Los Angeles, about 36 miles south of the city. Given Los Angeles’ long-time problem with gang activity, shootings aren’t necessarily anything new for the area; but a nationwide panic when a scare like this happens is telling of how much mass shootings have managed to rile up Americans.

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