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APTOS—Aptos High School was placed on lockdown for more than four hours after a student was stabbed multiple times Tuesday afternoon near the campus’ swimming pool.
The Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office closed off the school after the 2:15pm incident that drew about 15 patrol cars from the Sheriff’s Office and the California Highway Patrol. The Sheriff’s Office in a statement said the stabbing was an “isolated incident.”
Multiple law enforcement search teams combed the campus with guns drawn and a K9. At 4pm, the Sheriff’s Office announced it had detained two people, and at 5:45pm it announced the lockdown had lifted.
Central Fire set up a landing zone at the school baseball field where a CALSTAR rescue helicopter flew over the campus before landing in the outfield of the diamond. The victim was taken from the crime scene to the field by paramedics from American Medical Response and loaded into the helicopter before being swept off to a trauma center outside of the county.
Meanwhile, a huge logjam of traffic, mostly parents trying to pick up their children, lined up along Freedom Boulevard back to Highway 1 where a CHP officer grappled with traffic control. Near the entrance to the campus, a clutch of parents hugged one another, some in tears, as they yearned for information about the unfolding events. They took turns making frantic phone calls while trying to comfort one another.
Sheriff’s deputies set up a staging area for parents at the Sheriff’s Office service center at Cabrillo College next to the softball field.
