Arrest made after Santa Rosa City Schools threat reported with ‘STOPit’

(KRON) — A suspected Sureno criminal street gang member was arrested in connection to a threat that was previously reported through Santa Rosa City Schools’ “STOPit” app system, according to police.

Undercover Santa Rosa Police Department gang detectives saw the suspect, Javier Lesama Montano, on a city bus Thursday afternoon. Detectives followed the bus to a bus stop near Meadow View Elementary School.

Lesama Montano and two girls exited the bus and began walking into a nearby apartment complex together. “As Lesama walked into the apartment complex, detectives attempted to contact Lesama and take him into custody. Lesama tried to flee and was forcibly tackled to the ground. Lesama briefly resisted but was taken into custody,” SRPD wrote.

Detectives searched Lesama Montano’s satchel and found a loaded 9mm handgun. “Lesama is believed to be an active gang participant,” police said. He was booked into the Sonoma County jail on charges including: being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition, carrying a loaded gun in public, resisting arrest, and violating his probation.

Gang violence plagued some Santa Rosa schools over the past two years.

Last week, a 14-year-old boy stabbed a 13-year-old student in the back at Elsie Allen High School , police said. Investigations said the gang-related stabbing began when both students started punching each other in the school’s quad during a break between classes. Police said two more students who were “friends of the boy who had been stabbed” joined the fight and began kicking the 14-year-old student in the head.

The Santa Rosa City Schools district allows students to make reports through “STOPit,” an online and app-based system.

The app’s goal is to “empower students, parents, teachers and others to anonymously report anything of concern to school officials — from cyber-bullying to threats of violence or self-harm. Students and family members have the power to help put an end to harmful and inappropriate behavior they see online through social media and other means,” the school district’s website states.

The app has led to multiple arrests of teenaged gang members. On June 12, the Santa Rosa Police Department received information from administrators at Elsie Allen High School that an anonymous tip was received on the “STOPit” mobile app about a student believed to be in possession of a handgun and associated with a gang.

Later that day, the SRPD Gang Crimes Team served a search warrant at a residence in the 600 block of King Street. A gun was found in the home and Diego Cortes, 18, was arrested. In Cortes’ bedroom, detectives said they found “numerous articles of clothing and accessories commonly associated with criminal street gangs.”

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