ST. JOHN, Ind. — It turned out to be nothing. A call from dispatch about an active shooter at Lake Central High School came into police in Lake County a little before 10 a.m. local time on Wednesday.
“Being that it was dispatched as an ‘active shooter’ that’s how the St. John Police Department, along with several other agencies throughout Lake County and Illinois responded,” said St. John Police chief Stephen Flores.
But, Flores said it was not an active shooter at all.
“Several officers were there already,” Flores said. “Our school SRO, we have a full-time SRO in the school, he quickly determined upon arrival that there were no shots fired, that there was no gun.”
Flores said a student heard what he thought was a gun being loaded and racked in a school bathroom. Contemplating what they heard the student called 911 about it and then dispatchers reported the call as an active shooter situation.
That call hard over 30 officers and SWAT officers from throughout the county descending on Lake Central High School in a matter of minutes. At that point, the SRO (school resource officer) had already brought the two students involved in the incident to the office so he could talk to them about what happened.
Flores said once it was figured out no shots had been fired, the school was kept on lockdown so that officers could search the building “high and low” in case there was a gun somewhere inside. They never found anything.
By the time the search was over it was time for students to be sent home at their normal dismissal time so they followed normal dismissal procedures from there.
