El Centro, California - Monday, the El Centro Police Department received several phone calls of a male subject at the IV Mall causing a disturbance. The subject was making threats toward customers and employees that he was going to “shoot up” the Mall. A reporting party said the subject had something in his hands but they were not sure what it was.  Officers responded to the area of the IV Mall and began searching for the subject based on descriptions provided by witnesses.

Officers located the subject, later identified as Claudio Salazar (38 of Calexico) near Best Buy. Salazar continued to be as aggressive with officers as he was with patron of the mall and refused to cooperate.

Multiple witnesses positively identified Salazar as the suspect who had threated to “shoot up” the IV Mall. Salazar was taken into custody and later booked at the Imperial County Jail for Criminal Threats and Resisting, Delaying or Obstructing a Peace Officer. No weapons were located in Salazar’s possession.

The witnesses in this case were crucial to our being able to intervene and prevent any further disturbances involving Salazar.   In light of recent events in El Paso and Dayton, this is not one of those types of events.