A call of a gunman seen walking near Old Town forced a partial shutdown of an Interstate 5 off-ramp Sunday night.
Authorities began searching the area underneath the I-5, I-8 interchange just before 7:30 p.m. after a report of a man wearing camouflage and holding what appeared to resemble a sawed-off shot gun.
A few customers at Perry's Breakfast Cafe also claimed to have seen the man cross the freeway and walk into the bushes near the San Diego River officials said.
"We have gotten quite a few calls of people with guns, we do take them all seriously and we do track down as much as we can, we do search the area as much as we can and so we don't get a repeat of what happened in Santa Monica,” said Lt. Mark Bennett.
At least a dozen patrol units, including a police helicopter, K-9 units and the CHP searched that area for the alleged gunman.
Police did not want to assume that the man was most likely homeless, so therefore harmless.
They also say it's common in that area to see homeless dressed in camouflage, since there are several homeless camps there.
A NBC 7 news crew saw police stop and question at least three different pedestrians who happened to be wearing camouflage.
Police called off the search about an hour later. They believe the gun several people claimed to have seen, was actually a spear gun.
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Police say the man who was allegedly carrying it, is a well-known transient who lives in the area.
"We do have a lot of homeless people living in this area doesn't mean they don't have a gun. Sometimes people will carry sticks. We always kind of take that into consideration, but again we always try to track down these type of calls if we can,” Bennett said.
Officers said it's not illegal to carry a spear gun.
