SAN ANTONIO – A threat aimed at a Northeast Side school Wednesday stirred up fear and panic among some students and parents and caused the campus to temporarily go into lockdown mode.
Chief Wally McCampbell with the North East Independent School Police Department says someone called in the threat to Royal Ridge Elementary School shortly after 8 a.m.
He said the caller claimed to be in a restroom inside the school, with plans to shoot up the campus.
McCampbell said officers with his department and the San Antonio Police Department then rushed to the school, located not far from Randolph Boulevard and Weidner Road, and began a search of the building.
“(We) found out, you know, that there were several classrooms that had adjoining restrooms inside the classrooms,” he said. “So what we did is we went ahead and proceeded to search each classroom.”
In all, McCampbell said, they searched about 30 rooms but found no gunman. He said they later determined the threat was a hoax.
In the meantime, though, the school had sent out notices to parents, telling them about the situation.
Before receiving it, Christopher French had already realized there was potential trouble there.
He said he had just dropped off his children at school when he noticed a parade of police heading in the direction from where he had just come.
“Three of the white trucks flew by and then about six more of the SAPD squad cars flew by as well. I said, ‘Yeah, there’s something going on,’” French said.
The sight caused French to turn around immediately.
When he got back to the school, he was shocked by what he saw, even more police around the building.
“This is absolutely not what you want to drive by your kids’ school and see,” French said.
For Agnes Villagomez, it was word of mouth that had her scrambling to the campus to pick up her grandson. However, she later realized the rumors that she heard turned out to be unfounded.
Her grandson, Jax Villagomez, said his imagination also went wild as he sat in his classroom.
“I heard police going into the classroom next door, and then I didn’t know what was happening,” he said. “So I was, like, scared.”
Investigators still don’t know who placed the call or why, but they say they do not believe it was a student.
“It was an adult voice,” McCampbell said about the caller. “It’s just somebody who just really likes to cause a bunch of chaos.”
While that person may have placed the threat call as a prank, police say they’re treating this as a serious crime.