Police Searching for Men in Connection With Shooting at Skyline College

SAN BRUNO (KRON 4/BCN) -- Police are on the lookout for three men allegedly involved in the shooting of a student at Skyline College in San Bruno Wednesday afternoon.

San Bruno police Cmdr. Mark Catalano says an 18-year-old man was injured in the shooting, which followed a dispute between two groups of people at about 1:30 p.m. in Parking Lot 6 on the campus. Police did not say whether the victim or shooters are students of the college.

The victim suffered a gunshot wound to his buttock and was taken to a hospital to be treated for the injury, Catalano said. The three suspects fled north on Pacific Heights Boulevard, possibly in fluorescent purple Ford Escort with a paper license plate.

They were described as three black men all about 18 years old, one of whom had dreadlocks. One suspect was wearing a white shirt, another other a red shirt and the third a black-and-white shirt, Catalano said.

The college was locked down after the shooting, but officers have since safely evacuated approximately 3,000 students and staff members, according to Catalano.

The school canceled afternoon classes when the shooting was reported, and evening classes have now been canceled as well, according to Barbara Christensen, spokeswoman for the San Mateo County Community College District.

Police reportedly checked each building thoroughly and evacuated students in an orderly manner.

Some students received text messages this afternoon to alert them of the situation, she said. She did not know how many students had signed up for the emergency text message alert service but said the number is "substantial."

Student Edward Reyes, 21, said he was inside the school's Learning Center shortly before 2 p.m. when the shooting victim, a male, appeared.

"He barged right in screaming, 'I got shot,'" Reyes said.

Reyes called 911. He said it appeared the victim had been shot in the buttocks and was limping.

Students were unable to leave the campus until police could escort them, said Andrew Lidwell, editor-in-chief of The Skyline View student newspaper.

"We're hunkered down in the newsroom," he said shortly before 3 p.m.

A message posted on the school's Web site instructed students to shelter in place and stay away from windows.

Student Carlo Cervantes, 20, said police escorted him and his friends out of a building after they witnessed somebody being taken away on a stretcher. Officers made the students exit the building with their hands up to show they were not a threat, he said.

Jennifer, a 19-year-old student who declined to give her last name, said she was coming out of class when the shooting occurred.

"I heard a lot of popping noises," she said.

She said she saw three males running out of the Pacific Heights parking lot near Building 5. One had a gun and wore a black hooded sweatshirt, she said.

The three ran toward the main campus from the parking lot, she said.

Fall semester classes started at the school on Aug. 19, Christensen said. About 10,000 students are enrolled this semester, she said.

San Bruno police were not available to provide details on the shooting

Is that a chupacabra being stuffed by a taxidermist in Texas?

The mythical chupacabra is a hairless, nocturnal wolf-dog; the name, roughly translated, means "the goatsucker." Widely regarded as the Mexican Bigfoot, tales of the bloodsucking beast originated in Puerto Rico, but alleged sightings have been reported over the last few years in the U.S. Last week a Texas taxidermist got what might be a chupacabra, and CNN and Telemundo rushed over to interview him faster than you can say "Look at that hairless goatsucker!"

"The phone has been ringing off the hook" at the Blanco Taxidermy School, Robert McDaniel, the chief instructor, told The Times on Wednesday. The news media and the curious -- "Good Morning America" among them -- have called in asking for interviews and to find out if they have really found a chupacabra. "We've gotten about 100 calls today," he said.

The interest is all about a dead, hairless, coyote-like creature that was captured by Lynn Butler, a former student at the school. According to McDaniel, Butler heard something in his cousin's barn "tearing up the chickens pretty bad. So he left poison out thinking it was a raccoon or other varmint." The next day he discovered the lifeless animal that many claim is a chupacabra.

Jerry Ayer, owner of the Blanco Taxidermy School, isn't so sure that what he has really is what everyone hopes he has. But as the man who is in the process of stuffing the beast, he does know he's working on something unique.

"To be honest, I don't know what it is. I'd probably say it's a freak-of-nature coyote, or a hybrid breed with a genetic mutation," the soft-spoken Ayer said.

Ayer says he stuffs about 15 to 20 coyotes a year, and this is no coyote. "The footpads are different. They're rather bulbous. And this has longer legs by a few inches
But what makes it so different from other coyotes or dogs is that it is mostly hairless. "It has a little fuzz around the feet," Ayer says. "Almost like little socks of fur. And there's a little hair up the backbone. Very odd-looking."

Clearly intrigued by the creature's abnormalities, Ayer continues, "The hairlessness is sinister because you can see the bones protruding at the hips."

It's that creepy look and scavenger-like behavior that Ayer believes leads people to buy into the myth. "These types [of animals] will zip in and out of people's backyards and eat anything live or dead. They have two big canine teeth in the front and they go for the neck." When someone hears the animal and goes out back with a flashlight to investigate, "They see this weird-looking dark creature running off. And they see two holes in the side of the neck of a goat, and they take it from there."

What they take it for is a chupacabra, whether Ayer agrees or not. "It doesn't matter what I call it," Ayer says. "It's been labeled."

But one thing does matter to Ayer. "I don't want to be known as the chupacabra quack," he said by telephone. "People say there's a mythical beast and [that] I have one. I'll call it chupacabra because people love it, but I don't know what it is."

Two universities might help identify exactly what Ayer has. He said he has received requests from the University of Texas and UC Davis to provide tissue samples for their ongoing research.

And what of the possibility that a chupacabra might make an appearance locally -- say, at the Los Angeles Zoo? Asked if the zoo would house a chupacabra if one was captured, Jason Jacobs, the zoo’s marketing and public relations director, put off the issue as a matter of conjecture. “We don't have scientific proof that one exists," Jacobs noted.

Meanwhile, as the university scientists conduct their studies, the careful craft of taxidermy is being performed in Central Texas.

McDaniel and Ayer, who are half-brothers, say they have no immediate plans to charge admission to view the animal once it is properly stuffed and mounted; they're just happy that it is bringing attention to the taxidermy school. (According to McDaniel, for $3,500 the school will provide all the education anyone would need to become a professional taxidermist.

Once the mounting is complete, Ayer says, he plans on displaying it at the school. But he'll store it at night in a safe place -- because, he says, he's sure something as rare as whatever he has would be quite valuable to thieves.

Controversy: Jaycee Dugard Daughter's Photos

NEW YORK (CBS) To show or not to show. That is the question when it comes to images of Jaycee Lee Dugard's two young daughters.

America certainly wants to see them. For most of Sept 1., requests for the 11 and 15-year old girls' photos were topping Google Trends,a service that compares the world’s interest in daily web searches.

Photos: First Look Inside Jaycee Lee Dugard's Terror Tent
Photos: Jaycee Lee Dugard Found Alive

Despite the huge interest, at Crimesider, we have decided not to show the photographs. It is not yet clear if these girls were victims of a sex crime by Phillip and Nancy Garrido. If so, we believe their identities should be protectedOther news agencies have decided to display the photos with the childrens' faces blurred out. That still felt a little too close for comfort for us, but we can describe the content of the images.

The two photos, taken just days before Phillip Garrido and his wife Nancy were arrested for the abduction and rape of Dugard, show Dugard's children at a birthday party thrown by Cheyvonne Molino for her 16-year-old daughter.
Molino is a business associate of the Garridos who has said she knew Garrido and the girls well. "I met his daughters, I watched them grow up," she told CBS' "The Early Show" on Tuesday.

Molino said the young girls always appeared and behaved like normal kids and that the day the photo was shot, Garrido left the girls unattended at the party. "He dropped them off. He picked them up," she said.

The girls did not attempt to flee. And despite earlier reports, Molino said that in her presence the girls never acted robotically and didn't wear prarie dresses. Molino also said she knew Jaycee Lee Dugard, whose 18-year-long disappearance ended last week with the stunning revelation that she has been living in a backyard tent compound of the Garrido home after she was snatched off the streets of South Lake Tahoe, Calif., in 1991.

Dugard was a graphic designer in Phillip Garrido's printing business, Molino said. "You could always call her at any time or email," she said. She was "just your normal 20-year-old."

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