According to Brownwood ISD officials, Coggin Elementary and the Brownwood Intermediate School were temporarily placed into a “lockdown” on Thursday which was later determined to be a false alarm.
At approximately 1:10 PM, the schools were placed into a lockdown posture for the safety of the students and teachers as administration determined the situation. According to BISD superintendent Reece Blincoe, a male subject was observed outside of the Intermediate school with a cordless drill and was waving it around while yelling.
“At first they didn’t know if it was a real gun,” said Blincoe who stated the male was taken into custody from what he was told by Chuck Chesser the intermediate principal.
According to Blincoe, no one was ever in danger at any point of the incident; however, the lockdown was successful as teachers were able to get into the lockdown posture as a precaution for the safety of all at the schools. The lockdown was lifted after approximately 10 minutes.
“I’m not sure the man has all his mental capacities,” stated Blincoe of the suspect. Blincoe went on to say that the last two weeks of school is always difficult as is the week before Christmas, as teachers, students and parents are stressed out. He stated that the schools all tend to have more parent complaints and other issues this time of year.
“So if we can just get through this last two weeks of school, we’ll be fine,” said Blincoe.
Those subscribing to BISD Twitter alerts were notified of the lockdown at 2:24 p.m. Thursday when the district posted the incident on its website.
