Staff at a Kenosha, Wisconsin, school are being hailed as heroes Thursday for stopping a “suspicious” 13-year-old boy from entering an elementary campus while carrying two bags.
The boy entered a secure area of the school after trying to get in through side entrances and was approached by staff, Kenosha Unified School District Superintendent Jeff Weiss said. The teen then appeared “nervous” and ran away.
“They did not know in the exact moment what was happening, but their actions were heroic and prevented the unfathomable,” Weiss said, calling the incident a “potential school shooting.” “That today really helped avert a disaster.”
Police responded to the scene at Roosevelt Elementary School and posted photos of the teen on social media, which led to tips from the community, Kenosha Police Chief Patrick Patton said. Meanwhile, students throughout the district were held in class during investigators’ search for the suspect.
Through those tips, authorities were able to locate the suspect and convinced him to surrender before he was ultimately arrested. He was described as being a student within the district.
Though Patton did not say what was in the bags the boy was carrying, he said authorities have at least one video of him holding what they believe is a firearm and appears to show him “practicing rudimentary techniques” with the weapon. The teen conducted multiple internet searches about school shootings, and he also shared videos and made several comments to students about school shootings for months before Thursday’s incident, Patton said.
“We know that there was internet searches, and all the red flags that we would look for and expect someone to report were there,” the chief added. “We narrowly missed a tragedy today, and we’re just going to re-encourage everybody when they see something, say something, help us have those talks with your children. These videos … should have been reported to us earlier.”
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