Shooting in a hotel apparently linked to an incident of mental illness

No arrests were made after a man fired a gun in a Valencia hotel on Monday night, prompting emergency services to request a “psychiatric evaluation.”

According to Deputy Robert Jensen of the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff's Station and the Los Angeles County Fire Department, personnel responded to the emergency call around 6 p.m. on Monday.

Jensen said the station's incident log shows officers responded to a report of shots fired in the 27500 block of Wayne Mills Place, near a group of hotels in Valencia.

The report from officers who investigated the call indicated that the man had been examined prior to their arrival and was no longer at the Best Western Inn, where officers found four bullet holes.

During their investigation, officers confiscated the weapon and also found four bullets from the holes in the wall.

As of Tuesday afternoon, station officials had no clues as to what exactly happened to lead to the shooting, Jensen said, noting that the man was not in LASD custody, that no altercation had been reported prior to the shooting and that no one was physically injured in the incident.

At the time of publication of this report, station officials could not disclose the person's name or status.

Fire officials confirmed they were called to the scene around 6 p.m. and arrived on site about six minutes later.

According to Luis Garcia of the Los Angeles County Fire Department, the call was a “psychological evaluation.” No further information about the call was available.

A person who is experiencing a mental breakdown can be involuntarily detained for up to 72 hours under state law. This is colloquially known as a 5150 detention.

Laws and departmental policies on patient privacy generally prohibit both agencies from discussing such withholding.

Anyone seeking information about free and low-cost mental health services can visit bethedifferencescv.org.