Police Blotter 2/1

Samplings of recent calls received by Clovis-area law enforcement officers, according to reports:

An investigation into numerous attempts to shoot the locks off doors at a storage facility led to the Jan. 2 arrest of several people on firearms and drug charges, according to a report released Tuesday.

The people arrested said that on New Year’s Day they had been complaining about lack of money and decided to break into storage rooms to find items to steal and sell. Their attempts to shoot the locks and cut the bolts failed but attracted the attention of neighbors who reported the noise. Police reported they would be using information provided by the suspects in their investigation of several other open cases.

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A junior high assistant principal contacted police about 1 p.m. Jan. 22 after a student turned in a bag with a white powdery substance packed consistently with that used for illegal drugs that she said she found in her school bathroom.

Field testing returned negative results for cocaine or methamphetamine. The school resource officer reported her evaluation that the phony bag of drugs was probably packaged for distribution or for show.

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A high school teacher called police about 9:55 a.m. Jan. 23 to report that a drawer was missing from his desk that had contained a safe with about $100 in cash.

All school dumpsters were checked but police could not find the drawer or the safe.

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A Clovis woman called police to a business parking lot at the 3700 block of North Prince about 11 a.m. Jan. 23 to report that her brother and boyfriend had been in an argument and her boyfriend had taken her vehicle. Police entered a 1997 maroon S-10 pickup truck into their records of missing vehicles.

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The owner of a gun shop at the 200 block of North Main called police about 2 p.m. Jan. 23 to report the theft of a blue Colt .45-caliber pistol from the store display.

The owner said he had gone to the back of his store to get a tool while customers were in the front and gave police the names of customers who might have taken the pistol.

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Officers responded about 9:50 p.m. Jan. 23 to a fight in progress at the 500 block of Sycamore. Two men at the scene said there had been no fight, but that a white older-model Chevy Blazer had driven by and its unidentified occupant began shooting into the air with a pistol after yelling out the name of a Clovis gang.

Officers checked the area but did not locate any spent casings.

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While attempting to locate the source of shots fired about 7:45 a.m. Saturday near the corner of Main and Ninth streets, officers noticed a male juvenile walk around a corner, see the patrol units, and rapidly turn around and walk in the opposite direction.

The male was stopped by police and a search found a box in his pocket containing cigars packed with marijuana and a baggie of loose marijuana. The male was cited for possession of less than one ounce of marijuana and entered into police records as a gang member after admitting to gang membership.

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A Clovis woman came to the police department about 2:15 p.m. Monday to report that a man had come to her home to borrow her vehicle on Jan. 17. She said she agreed to let him use her white 2001 GMC Yukon and he said the vehicle would be returned in a few hours.

Police issued a warrant for the man’s arrest and entered the vehicle into the national stolen car registry.

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The night manager of a Clovis restaurant called police about 10:20 p.m. Monday to report that an older male had paid for his meal with what was later determined to be a counterfeit $10 bill.

The manager told police that when the cashier had questioned the validity of the bill, the man had told her he got the bill in Lubbock and was told by people there that it was OK. A closer check of the bill later revealed that it was in fact counterfeit currency.

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Police noticed a 19-year-old man walking through the Clovis High School parking lot about 12:30 p.m. Tuesday who had previously been warned by school administrators to stay off the campus, and arrested him for criminal trespass.

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Clovis High School administrators called police about 12:40 p.m. Tuesday after noticing an odor of marijuana coming from a 17-year-old male student.

A search of his belongings turned up a sandwich bag of marijuana. The student then admitted to his mother in the presence of school administrators that he had been smoking marijuana during the lunch hour, and was then suspended from school.

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Police responded about 3:46 p.m. Tuesday to an elementary school where a mother said her 8-year-old son had been assaulted by another student who had been bullying him all year. The mother said the other boy had grabbed her son by the throat and tried to choke him, following which her son tried to punch back and got thrown to the floor, hitting his head as a result.

The school principal said she had no record of either student being a problem at school and was unaware of the most recent incident.

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About 7:40 p.m. Tuesday, police responded to reports of shots fired and a woman screaming at a house on the 2200 block of Whipoorwill Way and found two women, one man, and two children at the house.

The adults said one of the women was having an argument with the man and had slammed a door three times, which could have sounded like shots being fired. A check of identification showed five different outstanding warrants from magistrate and municipal court, all for contempt of court, and the two women were arrested on the outstanding warrants.

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A Clovis nurse called police about 4:40 a.m. Wednesday to report that she had been jumped by two women in a parking lot on the 1200 block of North Norris, one of whom was her ex-boyfriend’s new girlfriend.

After some of the suspects were located, a man and several women gave statements to police. Officers reported that they would be seeking arrest warrants on battery charges after completing interviews with all remaining people involved.

Police blotter is compiled by CNJ staff writer Darrell Todd Maurina. He can be contacted at 763-6991 or:

[email protected]