Updated at 6:14 p.m. May 10, 2016:
A man who allegedly trained a pellet gun on an Escondido school today and fired it at a home miles to the north 90 minutes later prompted lockdowns at various schools in the city until he turned himself in to police in the mid-afternoon.
The initial sighting of the armed man took place about 11:30 a.m., when a city parks employee spotted him sitting in a black BMW parked at Kit Carson Park, pointing a rifle at L.R. Green School on Las Palmas Avenue, according to Escondido police.
The municipal worker was able to take down the license-plate number of the car before the man drove off, Lt. Justin Murphy said. Patrol officers went to the area but were unable to find the vehicle or the armed man.
At about 1 p.m., police received a call from a woman in the 2200 block of Conway Drive who said a man in a black BMW had just shot at her house with a long-barreled gun equipped with a scope, cracking a windowpane.
The resident confronted the shooter and took photos of him, the rifle and the car before he fled, Murphy said.
As officers went to that location, lockdowns were instituted at nearby Calvin Christian High School, as well as at Conway, North Broadway, Reidy Creek and Rincon elementary schools.
Officers soon identified the suspected gunman as 50-year-old Robert Beltran of Escondido and determined that his weapon was an air-powered pellet rifle, Murphy said.
Later in the afternoon, Beltran telephoned police and said he was the one they were looking for. He agreed to voluntarily go to Escondido police headquarters, where he was taken into custody without incident shortly after 2:30 p.m.
After being questioned, Beltran was booked into county jail in Vista on suspicion of negligently discharging a firearm.
The motivation for Beltran’s alleged actions was unclear.
–City News Service
