Officials: School lock-down ready

Newport Harbor High School was prepared to go on lockdown if needed Wednesday morning after a shooting occurred at an apartment complex across the street, officials said Thursday.

School officials and a school police officer determined that lockdown wasn’t necessary after police confirmed the gunman had left the area.

“We’re prepared?. When we need to lock down, we can lock down in less than one minute,” said Newport Harbor Assistant Principal Dave Martinez.

An Irvine man shot and injured another man at the Coronado apartments at 16th Street and Irvine Avenue on Wednesday. He led police on a chase into Huntington Beach, where the gunman shot and killed himself.

School officials and the school resource officer, an on-duty Newport Beach police officer, were notified immediately of the 10 a.m. incident, officials said. A lockdown was considered unnecessary because there was no indication that a shooter was on the loose, said School Resource Officer Steve Martinez.

“I didn’t want to create a panic,” Steve Martinez said.

The school deployed its security officers to the perimeter of the campus, and Resource Officer Martinez monitored the situation with police.

School officials did not make an announcement over the loudspeaker about the shooting because they didn’t want students to go look at the shooting scene or get in the way of the investigation, Dave Martinez said.