Oak Hills High School student arrested after loaded firearm found on campus; lockdown lifted

OAK HILLS, Calif. (KABC) -- An Oak Hills High School student was arrested Tuesday after a loaded firearm was found on campus, prompting a lockdown that was later lifted, officials said.

After school administrators became aware that a student was possibly in possession of a firearm, a news release said, the school, the Hesperia Unified School District and HUSD police initiated the lockdown and collaborated to apprehend the student.

"Law enforcement and admin quickly located and arrested the student and recovered a loaded firearm on campus," according to the statement. Shortly afterward, the shelter-in-place order was canceled.

"All students are safe and there were no injuries," the school said.

Steve Hinojos, chief of police of the Hesperia Unified School District, said a student reported seeing a firearm in the waistband of another student and immediately reported it.

"When we found the kid with the gun there was a short foot pursuit, and so the lockdown went in place as soon as we found the kid and knew there was a gun," Hinojos told Eyewitness News.

Before the arrest was announced, multiple parents who called and emailed Eyewitness News said they had heard reports of an active shooter at the school on Cataba Road, less than 2 miles east of the 15 Freeway.

The reports of gunfire were unfounded, authorities said.

Other parents found about the lockdown through neighborhood apps.

Students - uncertain of what was happening - alerted their parents.

"All of a sudden, the announcements went off saying code red," student Cade Buckhoff said. "And that's all it was. It was pretty ambiguous."

Amid the lockdown, Cade said he and his classmates went under the desk and waited.

Student Saig Cheffield said her classmates lined up against a wall and sat down as they tried to get as much information as they could from friends and teachers.

"I was just saying my 'love yous' and stuff, which is kind of sad but you just don't know what to expect," she said.

The lockdown was lifted nearly two hours later.

"We did actually recover a live firearm from a student," said Dave Olney, the district superintendent. "There were no shots fired, there was no incident that occurred other than the recovering of that firearm."

It's unclear how the student obtained the firearm.