Man who said he would ‘shoot up’ school in custody
He reportedly told an officer he was joking but is being held for mental health evaluation
SAN MATEO » A man overheard last week allegedly telling a San Mateo sporting goods store employee he wanted to buy a gun and “shoot up a school” was placed into protective custody for a mental health evaluation and a threat assessment Monday, police said.
The man, who was not identified because of the confidential nature of the mental health evaluation, reportedly told an officer he was joking when he made the remark and apologized.
The incident occurred at the Big 5 Sporting Goods store at 2825 S. El Camino Real at 5:50 p.m. Friday.
“The customer reported hearing a man comment to an employee that he wanted to purchase a firearm,” San Mateo police said in a news release Friday night. “The man then threatened to shoot up a school and asked the employee for a good shirt to wear.”
Employees did not sell the man a gun and asked him to leave, according to KGO-TV, this newspaper’s media partner.
Officers arrived at the store within minutes and searched for the man, but they did not find him.
The man did not mention any schools by name, and neither employees nor witnesses found the threat credible. Police, however, did not take any chances and called on the public for help identifying him. Surveillance video and images of the man were released.
Police also reached out to San Mateo schools, which in turn notified parents of the incident.
“While it can be unnerving for school communities to work through these issues, it is important to remember that the threats did not appear to be credible to the witnesses at the scene and that we maintain a sense of calm as we turn to our well developed and practiced school safety protocols adopted countywide,” police said in a news release Monday afternoon, before the man was placed into protective custody.
“We all want to assure a reasonable, proportional and sustainable response while recognizing that schools face a higher level of vulnerability in these challenging times.’
In response to the remark, police stepped up their presence on and around San Mateo schools.
The threat came a day before the March for Our Lives, a global event in which tens of thousands of demonstrators called for action against gun violence. The public protests were spurred by the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., in February. Seventeen people, most of them students, were killed.
On Monday night, San Mateo police said they received a call from an “allied agency” referring them to an individual they believed to be the man who made the threat.
“Our officers contacted the man and interviewed
him regarding the incident,” police said in a news release Monday night. “The man admitted to an SMPD officer that he was the person involved, was joking
when he made the statement in Big 5 and apologized.”