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Police called to Berkeley High School two days in a row
By Doug Oakley
Oakland Tribune
May 09, 2008
A knife-wielding homeless man was arrested at Berkeley High School on Thursday after chasing a student from a nearby downtown street during lunch break.
School security guards called Berkeley police for help after they surrounded the man in a school courtyard at lunchtime, Principal Jim Slemp said.
The student was unharmed by the man but was taken to an area hospital after he suffered an asthma attack, Slemp said.
It is the second time in two days Berkeley police were called to campus for a violent incident.
Wednesday morning the school was locked down for more than an hour as police cornered and arrested a student in a classroom. No bells were rung to dismiss students from classes, and no students were let in or out of the school, police spokeswoman Sgt. Mary Kusmiss said. The student had robbed another student in Civic Center Park across the street and then promptly returned to class, police said.
Thursday's action started when school security guards radioed the following message to Berkeley police: "We have a dangerous person in the Berkeley High School courtyard, and we got him surrounded."
Police arrived and arrested the man.
Wednesday's incident started at 9:42 a.m. when police were called to Civic Center Park after a woman saw someone wearing a black mask robbing a boy in the park.
The robbery victim told officers the man had just stolen his MP3 player and that the man had what looked like a semiautomatic handgun tucked in his front waistband. After reviewing a database of junior class students matching a description of the suspect, police arrested the 16-year-old without incident, Kusmiss said. He was booked into Alameda County Juvenile Hall.
On Thursday police searched the boys locker room after a student found an unattended backpack. They recovered a pellet gun, which looks like a real gun but is not.
Reach Doug Oakley at doakley@bayareanewsgroup.com
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