The Simi Valley Unified School District announced that all campuses will be closed Tuesday as the Sandy Fire burning in the Simi Hills has nearly doubled in size as of Monday evening.

The statement comes after multiple schools located in the foothills just north of the Sandy Fire were evacuated due to the wildfire Monday.

Simi Valley Unified initially released a statement saying all students were safe, but being kept indoors due to poor air quality caused by the fire. Sky5’s Rich Pricket reported that there was a long line of parents waiting to pick up their children at Hillside Middle School at 12:45 p.m. 

At around 2 p.m. Monday, all students still present at Crestview Elementary School and Mountain View Elementary School were evacuated by bus to Simi Valley High School at 5400 Cochran Street.

“Many students had already been picked up by their families before the remaining were bused to Simi Valley High School,” a statement on the Simi Valley Unified School District website reads. “All families were notified.”

All seventh-period classes and afterschool events were also canceled at Hillside Middle School and Royal High School. These schools were not evacuated.

The school district took part in a meeting Monday afternoon, which included officials from the Simi Valley Police Department, Rancho Simi Recreation and Parks District, the County of Ventura, and the Ventura County Fire Department. At the meeting, officials decided to cancel all classes tomorrow “out of an abundance of caution,” Simi Valley Unified School District Superintendent Hani Youssef said.

“With the knowledge that so many of our families are directly impacted by the Sandy Fire, ALL Simi Valley Unified School District schools and campuses will be closed tomorrow, Tuesday, May 19, for most staff and all students,” Youssef’s statement reads. “Only key leadership staff will be contacted to report to work for varied assignments. We hope that by providing this early information, our families will be able to make appropriate arrangements for childcare tomorrow.”

The closures include all on-campus afterschool programs. The school district will make a decision tomorrow whether or not classes will resume Wednesday.

As of 7:30 p.m. Monday, the Sandy Fire is 1,364 acres in size. The fire remains uncontained. More than 28,000 Simi Valley residents are under evacuation order due to the fire.

Santa Monica Police Department officers took a kidnapping suspect into custody following a pursuit and officer-involved shooting early Monday morning, officials confirmed.  

The incident began around 3:15 a.m. when SMPD personnel located a suspect wanted in connection with an ongoing kidnapping investigation. Authorities did not disclose where exactly the suspect was located but they did say the suspect was found somewhere in Los Angeles. 

The suspect fled the area in a vehicle after being located by police and led them on a chase that eventually terminated in the 900 block of West 85^th Street in the Vermont Knolls neighborhood, police said. 

Upon the pursuit ending, an officer-involved shooting occurred, Santa Monica police said. 

The suspect, who was not struck, was taken into custody, authorities added, further elaborating that no officers were injured.  

“The adult victim had already been contacted by law enforcement and was not present during the pursuit or officer-involved shooting,” police said. 

No further details regarding the ongoing investigation, including the suspect’s name, were released right away.

Alberto Mendez contributed to this report.

A 23-year-old man from Long Beach is in custody following a deadly hit-and-run crash in Riverside County Saturday.

The crash happened around 8:09 a.m. near the intersection of Dinah Shore Drive and George Montgomery Way in the city of Rancho Mirage, according to the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department.

Deputies responded and found one of the involved drivers, 57-year-old Teresa Bowlin of Cathedral City, dead at the scene. The other driver, Tyler Conant of Long Beach, ran from the scene of the crash, according to the sheriff’s department.

“During the investigation, it was determined that Conant was under the influence of alcohol [at the time of the crash],” the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department said.

Conant was arrested and booked into the John Benoit Detention Center for murder and felony hit-and-run.

The investigation is ongoing. Anyone with information about the crash is asked to contact Deputy Bret Meservey at (760) 836-1600.