By DOUGLAS W. MOTLEY
Senior Writer
An unidentified man brandishing a gun in public caused a ruckus among employees and customers at a busy shopping center on Hook Creek Road in the heart of Cedar Glen around 5 p.m. on Saturday, March 15.
The man, who was reportedly wearing a black jacket and matching pants, was first sighted by alarmed customers and shop owners in front of the Cedar Glen post office, which was already closed for the day, as was a nearby hair salon.
According to the owner of The Lake House, a popular antique and arts store, two sheriff’s vehicles and three highway patrol units, reportedly with sirens blaring, arrived within a few minutes, with approximately six CHP officers and four sheriff’s deputies, all wearing bullet-proof vests and carrying high-caliber rifles. They scoured the area for the unwanted intruder for over an hour, to no avail.
“I want to thank them for their quick response and for taking this seriously,” she said, adding that another store owner told her that they had heard a helicopter circling the area overhead.
Ironically, this is the same shopping center where the owner of a popular clothing boutique was shot and killed by an armed man who tore down a rainbow-colored flag favored by the LGBTQ community prior to shooting the store owner. With this in mind, the shop owner, noting that people sometimes sleep behind the nearby post office, said she was afraid the gunman was hiding somewhere in the vicinity. In the meantime, the owner of nearby Timberline in the Glen, another popular antique and curio shop, said they had not heard any helicopters in the area.
On Monday, March 17, CHP Officer Jacob Griede confirmed that units from their Arrowhead Area office in Running Springs had responded to the Cedar Glen incident but that they had been recalled following the arrival of sheriff’s deputies. When asked what kind of weaponry the CHP carries in their patrol units, Griede told the Alpine Mountaineer that an AR-15 automatic rifle and shotgun are routinely carried in their patrol units and that bullet-proof armor would likely be worn when responding to this type of incident.
At press time on Monday, a spokesperson for the Twin Peaks Sheriff’s Station was not available for comment.
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