By Danielle Israde
Courier Staff Reporter
A man was shot last Saturday evening at the California Color Guard Circuit Evaluation held at James Logan High School.
The victim is an Alameda County Sheriff’s Deputy who was off duty at the time of the shooting working as a parent volunteer for the competition.
At around 8:15pm, the Deputy spotted three thinly built hispanic men, estimated ages around 18-23 wearing dark clothing, walking around in an unpermitted area of the school.
The off duty deputy asked the three men to leave the area and flashed them his badge for added measure.
While he was escorting the three men off campus, one of the men told him to stop following them and then turned around pulling out their gun and shot him in the leg.
At 8:16, police responded to the report of the shooting on the 1800 block of H Street near Colgate Drive, and the off duty deputy was treated for the non life threatening injury at the hospital.
The school was placed on lockdown following the shooting and parents as well as school employees were notified via phone and email.
After the lockdown, the Color Guard event continued when deemed safe to do so and the shooting was determined a separate incident from the Color Guard event since no students were targeted or injured.
The school made an announcement the following school week to inform students about the shooting that occurred as well as reassuring them that the school is safe. Here are some Logan students comments regarding the incident:
“Outside near the flagpole, there was a blockade. I was trying to get to the guard room so I could park there when an Officer walked up and said I had to turn around and that there had been a shooting and then he was asking me if there was any suspicious activity, if I saw anyone running around. I didn’t see anyone so there is nothing I could say about that. But I’m just glad that the person who was injured was okay, he got out of the hospital the same night, that’s the important thing.” stated Bill, a senior who was on his way to watch the guard show.
Leia, a freshman wrestler, recalls the incident, “I came back at around 10:30 to the school from a wrestling tournament in Napa, and I remember calling my dad when we were exiting off the freeway and when I was at the school, he wasn’t there yet. I saw all of these cops around and the SWAT team so that scared me because something could have happened to my Dad but I called him but he said ‘No.’ There was even cops by our house so we just had to go around because they had streets blocked off. We made it home safely. It’s just a scary thought because my wrestling coach lives right across the street from the school; it’s scary to think about all of the residents that could have gotten hurt. I feel we should take it into consideration to have safer protection around our campus.”
Another Freshman, who wasn’t at school before or after the shooting on Saturday shared her opinion from hearing the news from the school announcement speaker. She said “The police here are not really paying attention to a lot of people who walk in, or they are not looking in certain areas that are more darkened. They need to put more lights, they need more people walking around. The Union City police are a hop-skip-jump away yet some stuff just happens, we are unprepared.”
A sketch has been made of one of the three men, not the shooter himself, and police are asking for anyone with any information on the suspects to call Union City police Det. Andrew Gannam at (510) 675-5354, leave an anonymous tip at (510) 675-5207 or e-mail Tips@union-city.org.
