SANTA ANA : Security Stepped Up at O.C. Courthouse

After searching the 11-story Orange County Courthouse in vain early Monday, law enforcement officials ended their hunt for an armed intruder who 16 hours earlier had yelled out to an officer, “You will all die tomorrow.”

Heightened security measures, however, were in force at the courthouse Monday as business commenced.

The meticulous search, which involved about 70 SWAT team members from the Sheriff’s Department and several city police departments, along with about 30 other police officers and three search dogs, was called off about 1:30 a.m. No trace of the gunman was found.

“We did a very thorough and systematic search of the Municipal and the Superior Court areas and we did not find him,” Lt. Robert Rivas of the Sheriff’s Department said. “He obviously eluded us, either prior to our setting up or during the search. . . .”

Rivas said an investigation will continue.

Security was stepped up Monday at the court complex on Civic Center Drive, but judges, lawyers, clerks and other court personnel went about their business as usual.

The incident that triggered the search began at 7:30 a.m. Sunday, when Santa Ana firefighters unlocked the courthouse doors to investigate a fire alarm that had gone off. Rivas said a man tried to sneak in behind them and was chased off by two county marshals stationed at the front desk.

After determining that the alarm was false, the firefighters left. But soon afterward, a courthouse employee reported to the marshals that lights were on in the second floor of the building’s west wing, Rivas said.

Court Services Officer Evan Scheib went to investigate, and found the same man who earlier had been chased out of the courthouse. The two scuffled, Rivas said, and the man pulled out a semiautomatic weapon. When Scheib pulled out his weapon, the man fled upstairs, but not before yelling out his threat.

Rivas said investigators have been unable to identify the intruder or his motives for entering the building.

But court officials were taking no chances that he might either return or was still in the building.

Lt. Paul Gushard of the county marshal’s office said extra personnel were assigned to duty Monday, in addition to the 140 uniformed deputy marshals who usually work in the courthouse.

“But business itself has not been affected,” he said. “I’d rather not discuss the contingency security plans that we have implemented. But everybody who is supposed to be here today is here.”