Correction: An earlier version of this article misidentified Lodi police Cpl. Matt Latino’s rank.
A Lodi police officer shot an armed person Monday morning inside a local McDonald’s, police told local media.
During a news briefing, Lodi police Cpl. William Hinton said this was the first incident of its kind in the last five or six years. The person shot was not identified but Hinton described them as “obviously injured,” although the department did not release their condition.
Police have not disclosed whether anyone else was injured during the shooting. Lodi police, as well as the San Joaquin County District Attorney’s Office and the California Department of Justice, are conducting the investigation, Hinton said. When asked for comment, the DA’s Office said it would defer to police.
“There’s no more outstanding threat to the public,” Hinton said. “There’s nothing to be worried about.”
A brief lockdown affected two schools near the McDonald’s, Lodi Unified School District spokesperson Brittanie Arnett said. While there was not a direct threat to the schools, the lockdowns at Clyde W. Needham Elementary and Needham West School lasted about 30 minutes, she said.
The McDonald’s, at Lodi Avenue and Church Street, remained blocked off and closed late Monday afternoon. Cones in the parking lot surrounded an article of clothing. Other businesses in the area remained open through the day.
Earlier in the day, Lt. Matt Latino told the Lodi News-Sentinel that officers had received a report about 9:30 a.m. that an armed person inside the restaurant was threatening employees.
When officers arrived, they heard gunshots and screaming, Latino told the news outlet.
A customer at the restaurant, Cheryl Steneck, told Stocktonia she saw officers approaching the restaurant after she ordered in the drive-thru line.
“I’m screaming to (an employee) through the speaker that I can’t get out, I’m stuck,” Steneck recalled. The employee then asked her to pull forward to the pay window.
After doing so, Steneck said, she heard a gunshot. The employee told her that she had ducked and covered her own head with her hands, Steneck said.
After the shots were fired, Steneck said police guided her and two vehicles in front of her out of the drive-thru line. She said the employee described the suspect as a man with a gun.
Across the street at Honey Treat Yogurt Shoppe, manager Aubrey Chambers said she heard sirens before turning to see a swarm of six to ten marked and unmarked police cars at the McDonald’s.
“I wasn’t expecting anything that terrible to happen so close,” she said. “I think Lodi is pretty safe so it was kind of a shock.”