Police arrested a man Wednesday night after they say he fired shots in an empty high school and stole a car from a homeowner he held at gunpoint.
The 28-year-old suspect broke into Cedar City High School about 9:15 p.m., when a witness reported hearing someone smashing and breaking things inside, according to a news release from Cedar City police.
The suspect was gone before police arrived at the scene, the release said, but surveillance video showed the man carrying what appeared to be a handgun and firing it inside the school. Evidence at the scene showed that the man had fired into two windows as well as into a locking mechanism of an interior door.
A short time later, the release said, an armed suspect of the same description allegedly entered an unlocked home and held the homeowner at gunpoint while he stole the homeowner’s car keys.
The suspect left the house in the homeowner’s vehicle, abandoned the vehicle “a short distance away” and fled on foot, police say. The suspect entered another house and “took a bottle of orange juice from the fridge then left,” the release said.
Residents reported that the suspect made at least four other attempts to enter homes and cars before he was arrested and booked into the Iron County jail.
The investigation into the incidents is ongoing.
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