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Students and staff at Castle View Elementary school in California were evacuated on Halloween after a parent, identified at 27-year-old Luvelle Kennon, allegedly barricaded himself inside a classroom with a female teacher. The suspect later was shot by police and pronounced dead at a hospital.
According to the Riverside Police Department, the incident began around noon local time when the suspect stormed into Castle View Elementary. Kennon of Riverside, California, then allegedly punched a substitute teacher in the face and broke his nose before taking another female teacher hostage.
Officer Ryan Railsback said that officers and SWAT team members isolated the classroom and then helped to evacuate students and staff. Negotiators had not heard from the victim while talking to the suspect, so the decision was made to go in and rescue her, police said. The 70-year-old hostage, identified by family members as first-grade teacher Linda Montgomery, sustained minor injuries and is expected to survive.
Kennon, 27, was shot by a SWAT team around 6 PM and later died at the hospital.
via Washington Post:
“He’s not dangerous,” Kennon’s uncle Carl 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.” Jackson said Kennon had just suffered an “emotional breakdown,” though he did not elaborate. The SWAT team shot Kennon, Railsback said. He was declared dead at a hospital hours later. It wasn’t immediately known whether he had a weapon although he did bring a backpack onto campus, Railsback said.
The teacher was taken to a hospital for examination but had only minor injuries, 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. The children were at lunch and were not in the classroom when Kennon strode onto campus without signing in at 11:15 a.m., said Justin Grayson, a spokesman for the Riverside Unified School District.
A substitute teacher tried to intervene before Kennon took her hostage, but Kennon punched him in the face, knocking him down and breaking his nose, Railsback said. Students initially were kept inside their classrooms before being ordered to evacuate to a local park, walking down the street in a long line.
The students were evacuated to nearby Castleview Park and were all safe and accounted for, Riverside Unified School District officials said.
Police said Castle View Elementary School would be closed for the rest of the week and counselors were available.
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