A False Shooting Report Puts City's Already Raw Nerves on Edge

The sound was painfully familiar.

Police sirens tore through Old Town Seal Beach today just after noon. There was a report of a shooting just down the street from Salon Meritage shooting victim Lucia Kondas’s funeral service at St. Anne’s Catholic Church on 10th Street and around the corner from where Scott DeKraai was arrested after allegedly shooting nine people last week.

It was a false alarm, but for a community on edge, it was hard to handle.

“All of it was 100 percent unfounded. The response you can see,” said Lt. John Scott, pointing toward a scattering of police cars and motorcycles, "was a reaction to what happened last week."

Just after noon, a man knocked on his 10th Street neighbor’s door. He was frantic. He said to call 911 because his mom had been shot. Police raced to the scene and quickly discovered that no shots had been fired. The man’s mother was fine, and the man was taken into custody along with a crossbow found inside his house.

“It was terrible. I heard the sirens just like I did the day of the shooting,” said 10th Street resident Skip Cook. “For a quiet little town, this was too much. We are not used to this.”

"We’re not," agreed Scott, the police lieutenant. "It’s not fair."

Cook and several of his neighbors last week had watched police arrest DeKraai just around the corner on Central Avenue.

Charlene Cameron also watched DeKraai’s arrest and couldn’t help but feel nervous when she heard sirens stop in front of her house today.

Like so many in town, she lost friends that day. Cameron had known Laura Elody since Elody owned Tanning by Tiffany on Main Street more than a decade ago. Elody was shot and killed last week. Her mother, Harriet Stretz, was also shot, but was the only victim to survive the massacre.

“I knew Laura had worked at the salon, but I thought she was OK until I went to the candlelight vigil,” said Cameron. “That’s when I found out that she was one of the people who died.”

Cameron had been at the scene of the shooting just the day before.

“Everybody is worried now,” said her mother, Pauline Cameron. “I was at an estate sale in Leisure World, and I was going to buy this tree for $6 dollars. The lady said she’d deliver it to me, but when I told her where I lived, she said, ‘I’m not going there. I might get shot.’ And she was serious. She was really scared,” said Pauline Cameron. “That hurt.”

Full Coverage of Seal Beach Shootings