Wilbur Cross High School was put on lockdown for part of Wednesday afternoon as police investigated reports of a student with a gun.
Cops didn’t find a firearm and didn’t hear about any threats being made, according to a 1:29 p.m. post by the New Haven Police Department (NHPD) on the social media site X.
At 2:48 p.m., police posted on X that the lockdown had been lifted.
City police spokesperson Officer Christian Bruckhart told the Independent that, as of 3:30 p.m., police aren’t sure if a student actually brought a gun to Wilbur Cross. They’re still trying to figure that out.
He said that a student apparently showed a gun or something that looked like a gun to other students earlier in the day. Word spread from student to student that one of their peers had brought a gun to school. Ultimately, a teacher found out and alerted police.
By the time officers arrived at Wilbur Cross, Bruckhart said, the student who reportedly had a gun — or whatever might have looked like a gun — had already left the school.
School district spokesperson Justin Harmon expressed gratitude that everyone is safe, and thanked staff for remaining calm in a difficult situation and police for responding and investigating.
“We are confident that there are no weapons in the school building and we are encouraging families to send their students back to school tomorrow because we believe it is safe to do so,” he wrote to the Independent. “We will keep families updated as the police develop more information about what happened.”