On April 20, 2018 at 11:45 School Resource Officer Keith Rieg was working at Golden Valley High School. He heard a radio transmission over the school portable radio system that there was an active shooter on campus. Officer Rieg immediately relayed the information to the police department. The school was placed on lockdown and a large law enforcement response to the school was initiated.

As officers began to search the campus, there were no additional reports of an active shooter or gunshots. As a precaution the school was evacuated and all students were escorted to an adjoining park (Joe Herb Park). Law enforcement officers from the California Highway Patrol, Merced County Sheriff’s Department, Merced County Probation Department, University of California Merced Police Department, Merced Community College, Livingston Police Department, Los Banos Police Department, and Merced County District Attorney Investigators responded. Merced City Fire Department, Cal Fire and RIGGS Ambulance personnel were also on scene to support the response.

It was determined that the original report was false, and that an unauthorized person may have gotten a hold of a school administration portable radio to make the original broadcast of an active shooter on campus. We are very interested in determining the origin of the original transmission and have launched an active investigation into the incident.

Merced Police are asking anyone with any information regarding this incident to contact Detective Sergeant Rey Alvarez at (209)388-7705, or the Merced Police Department Tipster Line at (209) 385-7826. The public can send information via anonymous text messages to police department by dialing “TIP411” (847411) and including the word “Comvip” as the “keyword” in the text message.