OAKLEY — An Oakley police officer drew his gun but did not fire the weapon while working to arrest a woman who wielded a knife at a middle school campus earlier this week, police said.
Police arrested the 61-year-old Antioch resident on suspicion of bringing a weapon onto school grounds, assault with a deadly weapon and making criminal threats, according to a statement from Oakley police Chief Paul Beard.
The encounter happened Tuesday at Delta Vista Middle School in the 4900 block of Frank Hengel Way.
Several other fights among juveniles broke out after the arrest, and Beard said police arrested a 15-year-old girl and 13-year-old girl. He said neither of them was armed.
Beard said officers first were called to the school about 3:25 p.m., because two people who were guardians to students at the school were in a nasty argument. The officer de-escalated the argument and remained in the area, he said.
The same people then argued again even more intensely about 15 minutes later, Beard said. During that argument, Beard said the same officer witnessed the Antioch woman armed with a knife and yelling at other adults in the area.
School kids were present in the area during the second argument, Beard said.
The officers on the scene worked to separate the two sides. Beard, in his statement, said one of the officers pulled out their service weapon because the woman “moved closer to the people she was angry with, and she moved the knife into a more threatening position.”
Beard said the officer was “fearing a deadly situation” and was “prepared to use it to protect the kids who were nearby.”
The officer did not fire and officers were able to handcuff the woman without anyone being injured, Beard said.