Armed Man’s Ex-Teacher Credited With Saving Lives

LAGUNA BEACH — A Cypress teacher who tipped authorities that a well-armed former student told her he was about to go on a rampage was praised by police Wednesday for saving lives.

Linda Simpson spent more than an hour and a half on the telephone Tuesday talking to Kevin James Stafford, a former student with a learning disability, who was later shot and wounded by police here.

In addition to a high-powered rifle, Stafford, 34, had three loaded handguns, police said. Simpson said he also had a history of difficulties in dealing with anger.

Without Simpson’s intervention, said Laguna Beach Police Lt. Danell Adams, “there certainly would have been victims.”

Stafford’s plan, Simpson said in an interview a day after her former student was shot, was to “hurt people” at his former job in Long Beach business and then commit suicide. Stafford had called his former teacher at Cypress High from a pay phone across the street from his old job in Long Beach. Police did not disclose the name of the business or its location.

In addition to Simpson, Stafford also called relatives and friends to say goodbye, police said.

Simpson said she persuaded Stafford to drive from Long Beach to her Laguna Beach home where the two could continue to talk.

While she was talking to Stafford on the telephone, Simpson had a student summon the school’s police officer, who contacted Laguna Beach police. “I was hoping that they could tell the people in Long Beach they needed to do something or they would be dead,” she said.

Stafford arrived in Laguna Beach about 3:30 p.m., where plainclothes police officers spotted him driving his pickup near Simpson’s house in the 800 block of Quivera Street in Arch Beach Heights.

Police had called Simpson on her car phone and told her not to go home.

When officers saw Stafford was carrying a pistol, they spent 18 minutes trying to persuade him to put it down, Adams said.

“He became increasingly more despondent to a point where officers began pleading with him to put the gun down and surrender,” Adams said.

Stafford told police, “Time’s up,” and pointed a high-powered rifle through the open back window of the pickup at the officers, Adams said.

Minutes later, police contacted Simpson and said Stafford had been taken into custody.

It was not clear if the man fired his rifle, Adams said.

Stafford is separated from his wife and was on medication for his emotional problem, Simpson said. She said she kept in contact 17 years with the former student who overcame a learning disability.

“He couldn’t learn by words, he had to use pictures and couldn’t deal with languages well,” Simpson said.

The teacher said she wanted to give Stafford the key to her condo in Palm Springs so he could calm down.

Stafford remained in serious condition at Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center.

He was arrested on suspicion of assault on an officer with a deadly weapon. Bail was set at $50,000.