A man died after several neighborhood residents confronted him for allegedly trying to climb the wall of an elementary school with a sledgehammer, California police said.
The bizarre incident unfolded at McKinley Elementary School in Long Beach at about 2:30 p.m. while school was in session on Tuesday.
The suspect had already climbed a fence and gotten into the parking lot of the school, police said. When he tried to scale another barrier to the campus, he was pulled down by a group of men who detained him.
Police said they were called to the scene after the man called about a home invasion, but when they arrived they were directed to the school where the man had been detained.
Police said the man was already unresponsive when they arrived at the school. Paramedics confirmed the man was dead at the scene.
The school was briefly placed on lockdown, but it was open for classes on Wednesday with additional security.
A letter from the school to parents offered few details about the incident.
“Near dismissal today, our school was locked down by local law enforcement due to a medical emergency in the school’s parking lot that resulted in an individual’s passing. Students and staff remained safe the entire time,” the message read in part.
Parents of the students expressed frustration that there was so little information about what exactly happened at the school. The school had locked down a week earlier over a report of a man allegedly pointing a gun at an 8-year-old female student through the fence. He was arrested, but no weapon was found.
Long Beach Fire Department spokesperson Jake Heflin said that the suspect carrying the sledgehammer died of a cardiac arrest, but the Los Angeles County coroner will determine the exact cause of his death.
Here’s a local news report about the strange incident:
Man who climbed fence at Long Beach school with hammer dead after being confrontedwww.youtube.com
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