Empty Gun Case Promoted Alhambra High Lockdown

"Everything’s ok," said a clearly relieved Rick Rubino, assistant superintendent of the Martinez Unified School District, Thursday afternoon as he explained the reason for Thursday morning's lockdown of the school.

"Around 9 a.m., teacher found an empty handgun case in front of Performing Arts Building," Rubino said. The district office and police department were notified. We determined that when you find an empty gun case, there is always possibility there is a handgun in somebody’s locker or backpack. We decided to go into lockdown mode, formed eight teams of one administrator and one police officer, and searched classrooms, backpacks, and locker rooms."

In the end, no gun was found, Rubino said. The lockdown ended at 12:45 p.m. Throughout the situation, superintendent Rami Muth and acting police chief Eric Ghisletta manned the command center, updating the district Web site and putting out robocalls to parents. 

The incident comes six days after Alhambra High received an email threat, this one unspecified, that created a highly visible police and administrator presence on campus all day. Rubino said today's incident was not directly related to the email threat.

"We have found no connection between last week’s incident and this week," he said. "But last week’s incident put us on our highest alert. The kids were great, the staff was great. Maybe the incident on Friday helped people handle this one with calm and patience. We did what we had to do. We did it well and did it right. Sometimes it creates a little concern with some people while it’s going on, but what we did was for the absolute safety of our kids."