07/06/2025
This past weekend, Calera PD received a call reporting suspicious activities involving juveniles in the Waterford clubhouse parking lot. The caller stated that one of the juveniles was wearing a mask. There have been recent incidents of vandalism in this neighborhood.
A Sergeant and a patrol officer responded and asked one of the juveniles to remove his hand from his hoodie pocket. The juvenile refused and the Sgt. removed the suspects hand and saw that he was concealing a handgun. The handgun was recovered and the suspect was arrested.
The second suspect was approached by a patrol officer who held the suspect by his arm to detain him when the juvenile refused to comply and started walking away. The second juvenile resisted, broke free and ran. The officer pursued the suspect on foot and saw the suspect throw down a handgun.
The handgun was thrown in an area with small children present so the officer secured the handgun and lost sight of the suspect. We received information that the suspect left the area in a vehicle.
The second suspect was identified and both have been referred for juvenile prosecution.
Neither juvenile suspect resides in the Waterford subdivision or neighboring subdivisions.
“Children carrying handguns at a subdivision clubhouse, playground and pool area is ridiculous and puts everyone including themselves in danger. “
“Parents, if you believe your kids are carrying guns, selling or using drugs or involved in gangs, don’t just take action after a tragedy occurs, take action now. Call us, talk to our SROs, we will do what we can to help. Our CASE program has connections with resources that are available to help parents and students.
I’m proud of these two officers and I’m grateful that this situation ended without tragedy but we are seeing violent crime involving kids and guns all over our state and country at alarming rates. “ (Chief Hyche)