The Riverside County Sheriff’s Department arrested a 26-year-old man for burglary in Palm Desert on Wednesday, which appears to have prompted a lockout at a nearby elementary school after he attempted to flee.
Deputies responded to a burglary in progress in the 43-000 block of Elkhorn Trail, about a mile from the Palm Desert Country Club, at 1:41 p.m., the sheriff’s department said. The suspect, identified as Mizahel Morales, of Palm Desert, fled before deputies arrived.
The sheriff’s department said deputies determined Morales brandished a firearm and forced himself into someone’s home. They found him at a nearby home and there were no reported injuries caused by the incident.
Gerald Ford Elementary School in Indian Wells, which is located less than a mile away from the country club, went on lockout status during the incident under the advice of the sheriff’s department. It was lifted in the afternoon. A lockout means school buildings were temporarily locked and no one could enter or leave campus while instruction continued.