SHERIFFS DETAIN SUSPECTED ESCAPED CONVICT, NEARBY SCHOOL LOCKED DOWN

A man suspected of being an escaped convict from Colorado was arrested Friday in Joshua Tree. According to a Sheriff’s report, deputies were dispatched to the area around La Contenta Middle School just after 1 p.m. for a report of two escaped inmates who were near the school. School officials, acting on the side of safety, locked down the school during the search. Deputies set up a perimeter and called for the sheriff’s helicopter, 40King, to assist. At about 2:20, a man matching the description, later identified as Isidora Contreras, 42, of Joshua Tree, was spotted by the helicopter near La Contenta and Highway 62. Responding deputies detained Contreras and woman with him without incident. During a search of Contreras, the deputy found a four-inch knife in Contreras’s pants pocket. Isidora Contreras was arrested for investigation of possession of a dirk or dagger, booked into the Morongo Basin Jail, with his bail set at $25,000. There is no word from the Sheriff’s Department about the disposition of the second suspect.