Photo by Lewis Perdue
On Friday afternoon, shortly after lunch, witnesses reported seeing a series of six to nine police cars (reports vary) speeding from both up and down Broadway, sirens screaming. They all came to a halt in front of Sonoma Valley High School and deputies ran from their cars and disappeared into the school.
One witness, struck with the sense of emergency, followed a taciturn deputy to try to find out what had happened, but the deputy would not say. Another witness, also drawn by curiosity, asked a group of students what was up. “Just another fight,” one student said. Deputies later reported that it was “a girls fight,” and when an officer showed up to sort it out, two girls piled on and in the resulting melee, he called for backup. When they finally got the girls separated, four girls, aged 16 through 19 were arrested. The three minors were taken to juvenile hall and the 19-year-old to jail.