Murrieta Mayor Alan Long was arrested on suspicion of DUI on Thursday after a crash left four Murrieta Valley High School cheerleaders with injuries ranging from moderate to major, authorities said.

Long, 44, who works for the city of Anaheim as a fire battalion chief, was booked into the Southwest Detention Center in French Valley and later released on $50,000 bail. He did not respond to requests for comment.

UPDATE: Mayor announces resignation, but still seeks re-election

About 8:15 p.m., Long was driving south on Jefferson Avenue when his full-size pickup truck crashed into the back of a car waiting to make a left turn at Lily Avenue, Murrieta police Lt. Julie Hoxmeier said.

Long showed signs of alcohol impairment, police said, though preliminary results from a breathalyzer test showed a blood-alcohol level of 0.07 percent, just below the legal limit of 0.08. After performing field sobriety tests, officers determined Long was impaired, a police news release said.

Hoxmeier said the definitive evidence will be the results of a blood sample collected for testing.

Long’s attorney, Virginia Blumenthal, issued a written statement saying that Long “extends his sincere apologies” for the incident.

“Mr. Long has never been arrested before and has never been at fault in an accident,” Blumenthal said. “It is my firm belief that while there has been an accident, there was no crime committed.”

The injured girls, ranging in age from 14 to 17, were taken to hospitals for treatment.

Karen Parris, spokeswoman for the Murrieta Valley Unified School District, said the students are members of the cheer squad at Murrieta Valley and had performed in a pep rally Thursday night in anticipation of Friday’s football game against Vista Murrieta.

“Three of the four are already home,” she said.

Parris declined to offer any specifics regarding the injuries suffered by the fourth girl, who was still receiving treatment.

Blumenthal said in the statement that Long rendered aid to the girls at the scene and spoke with their parents when they arrived. She said he was traveling about 25 mph at the time of the crash.

“No special favors were extended to the Murrieta Mayor by the city’s police department, and the mayor did not request any special favors in the handling of his case,” Blumenthal wrote. “The police did their jobs as Mr. Long would expect them to do.”

Long’s employment status with the Anaheim Fire Department has not changed, Anaheim Fire & Rescue spokesman Lt. Bob Dunn said Saturday.

If Long is convicted of a DUI, the fire chief will make a determination on Long’s future employment at that time, Dunn said.

Murrieta Councilman Rick Gibbs said he talked to Long on Friday.

“The most immediate concern is the health and welfare of the kids that were involved in that accident,” Gibbs said.

“This is certainly very much out of character for Alan Long,” he added. “I’ve been at a number of social events with Alan over the years … and I’ve never seen him take a drink.”

The arrest comes a little more than two weeks before Long, who was first elected to the council in 2010, makes a bid for a second four-year term.

Long landed in the national media spotlight in July after angry anti-illegal immigration protesters at the Murrieta U.S. Border Patrol Station turned away a convoy of buses carrying migrants flown in from Texas. Some accused Long of encouraging the protesters to thwart the buses while others praised Long’s actions.

“I would hope that the benefit of the doubt would be given to him as the legal proceedings take place,” Gibbs said. “I would hope that people would judge him on the merits of what he has accomplished in his tenure as mayor and in the years he has served on the City Council of Murrieta.”

At the high school Friday, the crash was the talk of campus.

Maxine Auer, a freshman who plays water polo, said one of the injured girls is enrolled in a sign language class with her but was absent Friday. When a student explained the reason why, “everything stopped for a moment,” Auer said. “It was sad. Everybody got real quiet.”

Auer’s friend Taylor Hensley said the news of Thursday’s accident was sobering to students.

“It just opens up your eyes to reality,” Hensley said, calling it a harsh reminder that car accidents do happen – and that people get hurt badly in them.

Staff writer Kyle Lundberg contributed to this report.