Several heavily armed San Jose Police Department officers, cars and one unit tank surrounded a house on East St. John Street, near North Sixth Street, for a raid around 1 p.m. Wednesday.
SJPD blocked off the entire corner of East St. John and North Sixth streets for about two hours.
SJPD Lieutenant Brian Matchett said the police department had a warrant to search for drugs in the house.
“As soon as everybody exits safely, we’ll go in there and secure the house and hopefully find some evidence,” Matchett said.
The officers drew guns at the house and demanded the suspects exit the building.
When no one came out, they banged on the front door with zip-tie handcuffs and weapons in hand.
Officers escorted the five individuals and a dog from the home to the street, where they were lined up and detained.
The SJPD officers used the side gate of San Jose resident Dania Granados’ home to gain access to the back of the alleged drug house.
Granados, who has lived in the area for the last eight years, said she didn’t know the raid was happening until she came home from picking her son up from school.
“I was a little scared because I have kids and I didn’t know that all that happened in [a neighboring house],” Granados said.
Granados and her son stood on their porch as the raid unfolded.
Another resident, who wished to be referred to as Bev for privacy concerns, said she was worried about her child who attends Horace Mann Elementary School.
The school activated its shelter-in-place protocol when the raid was taking place directly on the other side of the parking lot.
“I don’t understand why they couldn’t have done this raid earlier in the day, knowing that the kids get out of school at 1:55 [p.m.],” Bev said.
Donald Seacrest, San Jose Unified School District plumber, was on school property when it entered lockdown.
Seacrest said officers hopped over the school’s gates with weapons ready before all students were locked inside.
He said he watched as students walked to the bathroom and police officers formed their perimeter.
SJPD didn’t respond to inquiries regarding the raid in time for publication.
Krista Golobic, a mother of two children who also attend Horace Mann Elementary School, said she didn’t receive a notification about the lockdown until five minutes after the children were supposed to be released from class.
“I understand the school can’t stop criminals,” Golobic said. “It just makes me a bit more hesitant and obviously more observant for these situations.”
A lifelong San Jose resident, who wishes to go by the nickname DayDay for privacy concerns, said drugs, violence and other illegal activity are just a part of daily life for many people in downtown and Wednesday’s raid won’t change anything.
“It's just there, it’s always going to be there,” he said. “One [drug] house goes down and two more go up . . . you can slow it down, but you’re not going to stop it.”
