Report of gun prompts lockdown at 2 city schools
Complete coverage of the Philadelphia School District by the Philadelphia Inquirer's Kristen Graham.
Report of gun prompts lockdown at 2 city schools
Kristen Graham
Two city schools in Feltonville were locked down and police besieged a home in the neighborhood Thursday after four students reported a woman had pointed a weapon at them on their way to school, police said.
Using a robot, police, however, determined no one was in the house and declared an all-clear just before noon.
Police later executed a search warrant at house on the 4600 block of Ella Street but left empty handed.
According to Chief Inspector Joe Sullivan, the department’s commander of the home security, the incident began when the students arrived at the school a little before 10 a.m. and reported a woman had pointed a long arm — a rifle, or a shotgun — when they were “interacting” with a dog in the rear yard of the house.
As a precaution, officials locked down Feltonville School of Arts and Sciences, a grades 6-8 middle school, and the K-2 Barton Elementary, both on the same campus.
School police notified city police and a SWAT team, with hostage negotiators at the ready, took up position around the house.
Sullivan said police sent in a robot, which searched the house and found no one inside.
The lockdown ended around noon.
News of the incident prompted parents to go to the schools to get their children.
"I felt confused because I didn’t know what happened, said Orquida Cesar, whose 11-year-old son is in the sixth grader.
Mario Mercado picked up his sixth-grade daughter early from Feltonville School about 1:45 pm. "It's kind of difficult," he said. "At least nothing happened."
His daughter said she was "scared" and "started crying" when the school went into lockdown. She said her mother saw the lockdown news on TV and "was worried." With the mother worried, Mercado went to pick up his daughter.
"I was nervous because I didn't know what was happening," Cesar's son said. "I didn't know if it was Connecticut all over again," he said, referring to the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre.
Cesar's son said students in his class watchec cartoons during the lockdown.
Students the school didn't tell them what triggered the lockdown.
-Kristen Graham and Sulaiman Abdur-Rahman
- Top Cat. The victims of Andres Brevick would disagree with you.
Since the gun laws in Norway are strict, there was no one to stop him from killing over 70 people....kinda like Sandy Hooks foolish "Gun Free Zone" which led to 26 dead people.
But that's ok...I still haven't seen one proposed law dealing with mental health issues.
— Professor1982 
Ms. Lou, Who are "they"? Also, sometimes it's better to just "think" something instead of typing it.— tlee- once Obama strips away all our 2nd ammendment rights things like this will go away.....remember all you thugs and convicted felons pretty soon you all will have to get background checks....and bring those assult weapon mags with ya....there gonna be no-no's too (sic).
"FROM MY COLD DEAD HANDS"— doowaditty - @Yo doowad, No one is trying to take away your 2nd amendment. You sound like that dumba** prof1982.
— TopCat#1 - Topcat - That's funny..that's what Adolf Hitler, Joesph Stalin and Mussolini said just before they started a registration and confiscation program. — Professor1982
- "hatemongering conservative" --- ??? Seems the bulk of the insults that I encounter on these message boards/blogs are coming from leftists, liberals and/or Democrats. You even managed to prove this point in your post by slinging an insult. So I must ask, who is really hatemongering?— psyrus
- @PROFESSOR - look at your post again. there was no truth in it. just clowning. and now you want to bring the gun debate into it. had nothing to do with your first post. and i'm really bored with the great gun debate. and i'm not interested in the link you posted. i'm posting about what happened in the story. why don't you try it instead of the NRA rhetoric.— black dog
- That is why you will lose. B/C there's nothing "boring" about solutions that solve nothing and liberal attacks on the Bill of Rights. — Professor1982
Sounds to me someone was just taking the advise of Crazy Joe Biden.— TimmyDay- @psyrus. well i see different. and i posted what i posted because he came out with the bashing. of course you ignore that part. and yeah, mostly you conservatives are hatemongering. but have a nice day.— black dog
- @payrus - and that wasn't hate. that was criticizing an inane post.— black dog
- The NRA loves his stuff!— APhillyDump
- There should've been a good guy with a gun on campus and blew that lady away on site. Case closed, tax payer money saved and our children saved.— OohChildNoPhilly
- Who left the gate open at the crazy house?— TopCat#1
The way things are going these days.....Are they sure it wasn't just another student???
During the school year, you’ll frequently find her hosting live chats about the district on Philly.com. Please do pass along the scoop about what’s going on at your Philadelphia public school; Kristen welcomes tips, story ideas and witty banter at kgraham@phillynews.com or 215-854-5146.
You can also follow Kristen on Twitter here.
