UPDATE: Man taken into custody, firearm recovered in Shingletown incident

3 p.m. Thursday UPDATE 

Shasta County deputies reported they took the man into custody at 2:55 p.m. Thursday and recovered a firearm, according to scanner traffic.

The man had been lying on his back about 10 to 15 feet from the highway.

Highway 44 was opening back up to traffic just east of Shingletown, according to the California Department of Transportation on Twitter.

The incident was connected to a crash involving an overturned vehicle that was reported at 1:23 p.m. on the Shingletown side of Ponderosa Way, according to the California Highway Patrol's traffic incident page.

Further details were not immediately available.

ORIGINAL STORY

A man who apparently has a gun caused the closure of Highway 44 in the Shingletown area on Thursday afternoon.

At one point officers announced "shots fired" on their radio and witnesses said about 2:35 p.m. the man was yelling that he was going to kill himself.

Deputies said they were sending out a Code Red alert to the surrounding area.

One report said the man was walking east toward the Dollar General on Highway 44.

Check back for updates.

Mike Chapman is an award-winning reporter and photographer for the Record Searchlight in Redding, Calif. His newspaper career spans Yreka and Eureka in Northern California and Bellingham, Wash. Support local journalism by subscribing today.