Ross Middle School in Hughson was placed on lockdown prior to lunch on March 15 as a precaution while Stanislaus County Sheriff’s deputies searched a nearby home for a potentially armed suspect.

At 9:47 a.m. the Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Department was called to a violent altercation at a home on Verduga Road north of Whitmore Avenue east of Hughson. According to Sheriff’s Department spokesman Sgt. Anthony Bejaran, deputies learned that 51-year-old Derrick Delhart of Hughson had arrived at the home with a baseball bat and shotgun.

Bejaran said Delhart knocked on the door and at some point tried to strike the resident with the baseball bat, but missed. He then allegedly sprayed the resident with a liquid. When Delhart learned that 911 had been called he fled the scene. Information led deputies to a home next to a church on Euclid Avenue near the school.

“We placed the school on lockdown because the suspect was potentially armed,” said Bejaran. “He was called out of the house and arrested.”