The homecoming festivities planned for Delhi High School on Friday never got off the ground because a shooting in a nearby orchard prompted a campus-wide lockdown.

The suspected shooter was captured at gunpoint after running onto a field on school grounds, said Merced County Sheriff’s spokesman Deputy Tom MacKenzie.

The lockdown affected all three schools on the Delhi campus.

Around 1:30 p.m. Friday the sheriff’s department received a report of shots fired in the area of Merced and August avenues.

Deputies arrived at the scene and saw two male subjects leaving an orchard. Both were recognizable to the deputies from prior encounters, MacKenzie said.

The deputies yelled for the men to stop, but both took off running, MacKenzie said.

One suspect ran through a subdivision and crawled under a fence onto school grounds. The suspect ran along the fence line in a field until he was cornered and taken into custody at gunpoint, MacKenzie said.

The schools were put on lockdown when the shooting was reported and remained so while deputies searched for the second suspect.

The second suspect was not apprehended, nor was a weapon located. Deputies did find shell casings from a large caliber handgun and other evidence that leads them to believe the suspect in custody was the shooter, MacKenzie said.

The suspect is a 16-year-old boy and is a suspected gang member. He was booked into the Merced County Juvenile Hall on charges of negligence in the discharging of a firearm with gang enhancements and resisting arrest.

All the schools were released from the lockdown by 3:30 p.m.

To contact Sabra Stafford, e-mail sstafford@turlockjournal.com or call 634-9141 ext. 2002.