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West Side schools lock down lifted

Tribune Staff
Originally published 08:38 a.m., October 12, 2006
Updated 11:19 a.m., October 12, 2006

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Update: Ventana Ranch and Sierra Vista Elementary Schools are no longer closed to prevent anyone from entering or leaving, Albuquerque Public Schools says, and students at James Monroe Middle School will continue their day once Albuquerque police say the danger has passed.

Update: Albuquerque Police Department spokeswoman Trish Hoffman says about 40 minutes passed between the time a female student said she was confronted by a suspicious man inside James Monroe Middle School and when police were notified around 8:45 a.m. today.

The student said she was confronted by a man dressed in black and armed with a knife. She told a teacher, who then reported it to school officials, according to Albuquerque Public Schools.

But a room-to-room search of the school and its grounds has not turned up any sign of the man, Hoffman says.

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Three public schools on the West Side have been locked down after James Monroe Middle School officials received a report of a man armed with a knife on their campus.

Students at James Monroe, along with Ventana Ranch and Sierra Vista elementary schools, were locked in and the doors shut as dozens of police SWAT units, a bomb squad truck and officers surrounded the James Monroe campus at 6100 Paradise Blvd. N.W., at about 9:15 a.m. Paradise Boulevard had been blockaded to keep bystanders well away from the action.

"Parents need to know their kids are safe," said Albuquerque Public Schools spokesman Joseph Escobedo. "No one has been harmed," he added. "This is purely precautionary."

Escobedo said a James Monroe student told a teacher shortly before 9 a.m. that she had seen a suspicious man inside the school, near a girls bathroom. He was armed, the girl said, but officials have not been able to confirm that.

"Within two or three minutes, they shut down the entire school," Escobedo said. Students were kept in their classrooms and the doors were locked, he said.

After James Monroe was locked down, APS officials also locked down nearby Ventana Ranch and Sierra Vista elementaries. Again, Escobedo said, it was a precautionary move.

Albuquerque police cars quickly swarmed to the site and blockaded the school. Police spokeswoman Trish Hoffman said officers were trying to figure out the legitimacy of the tip and planned to search the entire campus, inside and out.

Parents were asked to stay away. John Trujillo, whose daughter is in seventh grade at James Monroe, stood a block away and watch through binoculars. He had heard about the lockdown on the radio, he said, then confirmed it with a call to a friend at APD.

"It's scary, especially with what's going on around the country," he said. "SOmething like this is always on the back of your mind."

Mike Fisher, whose younger brother is a seventh-grader at the school, was dismayed as SWAT cars and an armored bomb squad truck drove past on Paradise Boulevard. "This isn't funny," he said. "They need to start telling us something."

Parent Claudio Quevedo said she spoke by cell phone to her sixth-grade daughter, who was inside the school. Her daughter said she was scared, Quevedo said, and told her mom that reports were circulating among students that the suspect had a knife.

Escobedo said it wasn't clear whether the man was armed, but that school officials and police were taking no chances.