By M. Scott Carter
MOORE — MOORE — Eight elementary and three junior high schools in Moore were locked down Thursday after police notified school officials about a man seen in the area “wearing camouflage and carrying a rifle.”
Police spokesman Sgt. Todd Strickland said police were notified early Thursday morning that a white male in his mid-20s was observed wearing fatigues, carrying a backpack and holding what observers though was a rifle.
Strickland said the man was reported at Little River Park, 640 NW 4th St.
“The witnesses observed the individual and approached him,” Strickland said. “They were not threatened or harmed in any way.”
Strickland said the witnesses notified police who contacted the man about 15 minutes later.
“Around 8:22, our officers located the individual at SW 2nd and Janeway and spoke with him,” Strickland said. “He told them he was out at the park getting his daily exercise.”
Strickland said the man’s rifle wasn’t real but instead was a toy which “weighed about the same as a real rifle.”
Police contacted school officials who locked down the elementary and junior high schools, Superintendent Deborah Arato said.
In a statement e-mailed to The Transcript, Arato said the schools locked down were Santa Fe, Plaza Towers, Briarwood, Southgate, Kelley, Houchin, Central and Northmoor elementaries as well as Central, Highland East and Highland West junior highs.
“It was right at the time we had kids coming to school,” she said, “I just didn’t want kids lingering outside the buildings during drop-off.”
Arato said officials took the action “as a precaution following notification from several school resource officers that the police were receiving citizen reports concerning an adult individual dressed in camouflage and carrying a weapon.”
The lockdown was issued about 8:40 a.m. and ended about 9:10 a.m., she said.
Arato said schools were in the vicinity of S.W. 4th Street and Santa Fe Avenue, Janeway Avenue, or Telephone Road.
“Again the lockdown was brief,” she said. “Around 30 minutes. The lockdown ended when we were notified by police that they were working with an individual who met the description.”
Strickland said officers “were obviously concerned” by the incident, but could not identify any laws which had been broken.
“It raises a number of concerns,” he said. “Our officers felt it was a medical issue, so they took the man to the Veterans Administration hospital in Oklahoma City.”
Strickland refused to identify the man. He said the man has been seen by a doctor.
“No one was injured and no one was threatened,” he said. “We’ll continue to monitor the situation.”
The lockdown was the third in two days in Oklahoma.
Wednesday, Capitol Hill High School in Oklahoma City and Booker T. Washington in Tulsa were locked down.
Capitol Hill also opened under lockdown Thursday, The Associated Press reported, following the Wednesday incident in which two female students reported seeing a male with a student ID and a gun in his waistband on a street next to the school.
Booker T. Washington was not under lockdown Thursday.
