South Tahoe High on lock down after 911 call about suicidal man with knife

A mentally disturbed man holding a knife to his own throat in an apartment near South Tahoe High Wednesday morning resulted in a temporary lockdown on the campus.

Just before 9 a.m. on Wednesday morning a 911 call came in and the School Resource Officer cautioned the high school to conduct a lockdown until police officers could arrive and assess the situation.

Soon after the arrival of police they were able to confirm that 27-year-old Joseph Brunn was contained within his apartment and posed no immediate risk to anyone at the school according to South Lake Tahoe Police Sgt. Brian Williams.

Officers were able to enter the apartment where they arrested Brunn on several felony charges: False imprisonment because he blocked his cohabitant girlfriend from leaving the apartment; felony child endangerment, because an infant (not Brunn’s child) was inside the apartment while he was threatening to commit suicide with the knife; and felony dissuasion of a witness because he told his girlfriend, while holding the knife, to hang up when she called the police.

Brunn was also charged with misdemeanor cruelty to animals because while driving to the apartment, before the suicide threat, Brunn threated to kill the dog owned by his girlfriend’s mother. This mid-sized poodle was inside the car with them at the time. Brunn did follow through with his threat and strangled the poodle but Brunn’s girlfriend was able to wrestle the dog away from him before h could kill it. The dog survived.

Williams told South Tahoe Now the knife was a steak knife with an approximate 6” serrated blade and a black plastic grip.

The lockdown at South Tahoe high started at 8:51 a.m. and school officials got an all clear call at approximately 9:05 a.m. Principal Chad Houck said that since a lockdown drill was scheduled for Thursday they chose to continue it and complete accountability during the exercise, and cancel the drill for tomorrow.

"Administrative review of the incident and exercise revealed that teachers and students responded well when the lockdown was announced using our public address system," Houck told South Tahoe Now. "Further communications to staff were made using email. I am proud of the professionalism of our staff and the support of our students and the community as we work to ensure the safety of our campus."