Armed Man Arrested Off Campus

[slideshow_deploy id=’20783′]

By Diana Viera, Arleeny Escarcega and Laura Garcia

An armed man who was fleeing police was captured and arrested today just yards from Santa Ana College’s main entrance.

The suspect crossed a campus access road and fled down 17th Street about 3:40 p.m. when police caught and tackled him, sending drug paraphernalia, a knife and other items across the street witnesses said.

“I was on the street I was on my way home, I just saw the guy running and he got tackled by the cops and got hit by a stick pretty strong,” witness Peter Garcia said.

The suspect was noticeably bleeding from his head and hand. He was unable to walk and was carried by two SAPD officers to the police car.

SAPD notified Santa Ana College Campus Safety Lt. Michael Colver about 3:25 p.m. telling him that they were searching for an unarmed suspect wanted for forgery.

According to SAC campus security officials, the helicopters seen circling SAC’s main campus were looking for a 30-year-old Latino male wearing a gray beanie, black shirt, jeans and a backpack.

“We notified Early Child Development Center and the Middle College High School as a precaution. Police did not recommend or suggest that we lock down the campus at all and the whole thing was over in 15 minutes from the time we were notified,” Colver said.

It is the second time in four days that SAPD officers and a helicopter were dispatched to or near Santa Ana College’s main campus.

On Saturday, police responded to a 911 call after a suspicious man left a note that led a communications professor to secure nine students in a locked office and call for help after campus security failed to respond.