Two Monterey Schools were placed on a soft lockdown on Wednesday as law enforcement investigated a shots-fired incident.
The Putnam County Sheriff’s Office and Monterey Police Department responded to Arrowhead Drive after receiving a call reporting the incident. Putnam County Sheriff Eddie Farris said a property owner called, alleging that someone was attempting to rob them. Farris said investigators determined that is not what happened.
“One of the individuals at the residence, we believe, we had an attempted suicide that did not go very well,” Farris said. “And he finally admitted later that he did in fact shoot himself.”
Farris said the incident is still under further investigation. Farris said the individual will likely be charged with false reporting.
“It’s minor injuries,” Farris said. “He did get treated, but there will be some follow-up charges regarding a false call and false report at some point in time.”
Farris said Burks Elementary and Monterey High School went into a soft lockdown due to the initial report.
“Absolutely. I mean, obviously, you know, Arrowhead and the schools are some distance apart,” Farris said. “We never believed that the person could walk that far. However, we, you know, didn’t know that he might have a vehicle stashed at some point or another. And so we were just taking precautionary measures. We, the Sheriff’s office, transported the canine tracking dog immediately. The aircraft there, the Air One helicopter, got up and was looking in the area really quickly. And once again, we realized real quick with the story, just didn’t match the scene there.”
Farris said \unfortunately, the Sheriff’s Office wasted resources due to the false report.