After he was shot by police, the suspect who held a hostage in a California school for seven hours died early Wednesday, Nov. 1, according to reports.
The teacher, Linda Montgomery, 70, wasn’t harmed. Railsback said she was grabbed by the suspect and taken into a classroom at Castle View Elementary School in Riverside.
It’s not clear whether Kennon was armed; Witnesses said they didn’t see any weapons.
Family members said Kennon had some type of breakdown.
“He had a breakdown, and he relapsed again. That’s all, he’s not dangerous,”Carl Jackson, an uncle, told the ABC 7. “It’s just a matter of getting in there and talking to him, because we can talk to him. He'll come out for us if police let us, before anything bad happen to him.”
Kennon, he said, is “not a bad guy, never been in trouble.”
“He’s a good kid, just having an emotional breakdown. He doesn’t have no access to no weapons,” Jackson said.
But police said they saw smoke coming from the room at one point.
“When officers did respond, they noticed some type of smoke coming from the room,” said Railsback, ABC 7 reported. “They don’t believe it was related to any type of explosive device. We don’t know.”
“It didn’t seem [to be] anything toxic that was harming anybody. We don’t know if it was even maybe a fire extinguisher. But it looks like it [has] since dissipated. It didn’t seem to be too much of a concern other than it came from the room they were in.”