Barstow man with criminal history linked to lockdown at high school

Charlie McGee, Victorville Daily Press
·1 min read
Barstow Police Department arrested and booked Macal Johnson on suspicions of discharging a firearm in a school zone, willfully discharging a firearm with gross negligence, possessing a firearm and ammo as a felon, and violating probation.
Barstow Police Department arrested and booked Macal Johnson on suspicions of discharging a firearm in a school zone, willfully discharging a firearm with gross negligence, possessing a firearm and ammo as a felon, and violating probation.

A Barstow man with a lengthy criminal history allegedly fired gunshots a few-hundred feet away from the Barstow High School campus, causing students to be placed on a brief lockdown Tuesday morning.

Around 7 a.m., school resource officers George Gatti and Brian Pena locked down Barstow High School in response to gunshots heard in the 400 block of West Fredricks Street, less than 500 feet the school's baseball and soccer fields.

Officers learned that a man wearing blue jeans and a black sweater was spotted "firing shots into the air," according to Barstow Police Department's Facebook post. The officers quickly identified the suspect as Macal Johnson, 23.

The lockdown at the high school ended within 15 minutes of the report of shots, officers said.

Johnson was arrested and booked into jail on suspicion of discharging a firearm in a school zone, willfully discharging a firearm with gross negligence, possessing a firearm and ammunition as a felon, and violating his post-release community supervision, according to county booking records.

San Bernardino County Superior Court records show Johnson has faced 10 cases in the superior courts of Barstow and Victorville since 2018. This includes a case of alleged domestic violence that was later dismissed, multiple infractions and misdemeanors that have since been closed — one of which resulted in probation — and two felony cases that have since been closed.

Johnson is set to appear in Victorville Superior Court at 12:30 p.m. Thursday. He was being held on a $50,000 bail, but he'd been given no bail and no court date as of Tuesday for the charges related to breaking probation, according to the booking records.

Charlie McGee covers California’s High Desert for the Daily Press, focusing on the city of Barstow and its surrounding communities. He is also a Report for America corps member with The GroundTruth Project, an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit news organization dedicated to supporting the next generation of journalists in the U.S. and around the world. McGee may be reached at 760-955-5341 or cmcgee@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @bycharliemcgee.

This article originally appeared on Victorville Daily Press: Barstow man booked for gunshots near high school after brief lockdown