Man Threatens to Shoot People at Alpine Library With Toy Gun

A man armed with a toy gun was pointing it at people in the crowded Alpine Library and threatening to shoot them Saturday afternoon, according to the Sheriff’s Department.

"I thought I was dead," one of the people in the library said. "I thought I was a dead man. And then he starts pulling the trigger and up to that point and I'm thinking I'm going to be dead, and then I'm thinking it's going to be like an airsoft gun or a co2 gun."

Before deputies arrived the suspect, identified as Jack Wadel, 60, threatened to pull a handgun out of his backpack. In an attempt to keep him from grabbing the gun, a person in the library tackled him. The person sustained minor injuries to his left eye. No one else was injured in the incident.

A 911 caller also reported hearing shots, which witnesses said possibly came from an airsoft gun. Wadel left the library on foot heading westbound on Alpine Blvd. toward Tavern Rd.

He was found hiding under some boxes at the back of a Mexican restaurant on Alpine Blvd.

Officers found two black imitation handguns on Wadel.

He was arrested for assault with a deadly weapon, criminal threats, displaying of a firearm and battery. Wadel was booked into the San Diego Central Jail

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