(Associated Press) An elementary school principal in Fresno shot and killed himself as sheriff's deputies prepared to search his home as part of a child sex abuse investigation that will continue in the aftermath of the suspect's suicide, authorities said.
Fresno County deputies were approaching Orange Center Elementary principal Lance Clement's house in Hanford on Friday morning when they heard a shot inside, Lt. John Golden said. Clement, 42, was pronounced dead at the scene.
The principal, who had been the lead administrator at Orange Center for four years and also served as its district superintendent, had been under investigation in the week since a school employee reported seeing him in his office with a female fifth-grader and the lights off, Sheriff Margaret Mims said.