Guns Drawn on False Alarm in Logger's Run

Vistawood Way in Timberwalk, Logger's Run; Image from Google
Vistawood Way in Timberwalk, Logger’s Run; Image from Google

We heard from many readers this morning about an incident in the Logger’s Run community. People saw 10 or more PBSO cars, deputies with rifles and guns drawn, and a helicopter flying overhead.

Police operation happening now inside the Timberwalk Association, Loggers Run. Lots of police cars, chopper and police with guns drawn behind trees.

What is going on at Ponderosa & Winikoff? Riot police – 10 cars w automatic weapons drawn!

We contacted PBSO and received an official response:

Deputies were dispatched to a call of shots fired. When they arrived, we checked the area and all we found was some pounding noise coming from a house nearby. This was not a false 911 call per se, whoever called it in perceived they heard a shooting. It’s considered unfounded.

The incident apparently began sometime before 8 am and heated up as kids were being dropped off at Logger’s Run Middle School. The location of the incident was in the Timberwalk townhomes south of Palmetto Park Road near the southern intersection of Ponderosa and Judge Winikoff:

Other readers reported that the middle school went into lockdown and kids were scared:

My daughter was locked in the cafeteria and was scared out of her mind. She stated in her text to me that many of the kids were very nervous and huddling with their friends.

The initial report sounded very serious:

•••WEST BOCA••• BARRICADED SUSPECT — Ponderosa Dr @ Judge Winikoff Rd (Loggers Run) — Multiple PBSO units are at the scene of a male suspect possibly barricaded inside a house, wanted for questioning, reported fired shots up in the air and ran

After further investigation there was a follow-up report:

UPDATE: PBSO made entry, suspect not in the house, appears to have fled on foot unknown direction, Further investigation revealed there was no shooting or shot, the subject was just banging on a car with a hammer, units are clearing the scene now, no danger or threat any longer

Another source – a neighbor – tells us that this was a possible domestic dispute where a man was banging on a car with a hammer and a woman got angry about it and called 911 falsely indicating shots had been fired. The banging on the car part of the story appears to be accurate though the details of who the caller was and why they made the call are disputed by PBSO and another of our sources.

Spanish River and West Boca Academic All-Stars

all-star
The Palm Beach County school district’s “All-Star Academic Challenge team” competed in the Commissioner’s Academic Challenge at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort from April 9 to April 11. Overall the team placed 7th out of the 12 “large county” districts that competed.
West Boca students who participated included Miles Fertel of Spanish River High (top right in the photo) and Noah Graff of West Boca High (next to Fertel). Both are seniors. Others on the team were Matt Liang and Karen Sem of Suncoast High, and Marc Rodriguez and Andrew Sack of Atlantic High. The team was coached by Dr. Mary Murray, a mathematics teacher at Suncoast High School.
Noah Graff was previously featured in West Boca News as a National Merit Finalist.

Battle of Bands at Olympic Heights: Wednesday

Olympic Heights Band
Olympic Heights Band

Olympic Heights High School will host a “Battle of the Bands” on Wednesday, April 22nd, at 7 pm. The event will include swing bands from four county schools including Olympic Heights, Palm Beach Central High, Park Vista High, and Don Estridge Middle School.
Don Estridge Middle School band
Don Estridge Middle School band

The four bands facing off were the top finishers in competitions leading up to the finals. The event is sponsored by the Swing & Jazz Preservation Society, an organization devoted to supporting Palm Beach County public schools with swing and jazz bands.

Please note that we did not have photos of the swing bands so for this story we used other photos of the school bands.