Elementary school on lockdown after possible gunman spotted

Monday, Nov. 7, 2005

Click here to enlarge this photo Barbara L. Salisbury⁄The Gazette Eleanor Jones, who has a grandchild at Arrowhead Elementary School, tries to get the child’s father on the phone after learning about the gunman who tried to enter the school Monday morning. Her granddaughter Mia Donohue, 19 months, was at home with Jones down the street from the school when they heard the news.

All children at the school, on Sansbury Road, are accounted for, but police say they will not let them out until it is deemed safe to do so.

‘‘If they don’t find this guy, I’m going to take my kids out of school for at least a week until they can catch him,” said Alicia Nathan, a parent. ‘‘I’m scared.”

A county police officer spotted the man at about 11:15 a.m. while conducting a routine patrol on D’Arcy Road, which intersects with Sansbury Road. The suspect was wearing a black jacket, dark pants and a black ski mask, and carrying what the officer thought was a long gun, while walking along the road near the school.

The officer turned around and got out to confront the suspect, who then ran toward the school and tried to pull on a door. Finding the door locked, the suspect ran off into the woods.

‘‘The officer saw what he saw, and took action,” said police spokeswoman Cpl. Diane Richardson.

Police were unable to identify the suspect because of the mask he was wearing. But the department is conducting K-9 and low-level helicopter searches over a 2.5-mile radius.

Area resident Gloria Beckett said she was standing outside her home in the street with friends because she was scared about the reports of a possible gunman running around.

‘‘‘‘I’ve got nothing but woods behind me,” said Beckett, who has lived in the neighborhood for 42 years. ‘‘That’s why I’m out here, because I don’t’ want to be alone in the house.”

Grandparent Eleanor Jones said she hurried out of the house as soon as she heard the news.

‘‘They just told us the children are OK,” said Jones, whose 9-year-old granddaughter is in third grade at Arrowhead. ‘‘I’m still kind of worried.”