Rapid City: Copy Cat, Or Hoax?

No shots fired as of this report - h/t SDB.

RAPID CITY -- Law-enforcement officers are looking for an American Indian male in connection with a report of a gunman in Rapid City Central High School this morning.

A reporting party described the person as an American Indian male, about 5-foot-8 and 160 pounds, wearing a white hooded sweatshirt and blue jeans.

Police surrounded Central High School about 9:50 a.m. Tuesday after a report of a person with a gun on the grounds.

The building was locked down and police, sheriff’s deputies and officers with the local strategic response team were stationed at the entrances to the school and on the grounds around the building.

Capt. Ed Hofkamp of the Rapid City Police Department said there were no shots fired and no injuries. All students were safe and uninjured at 10:40 a.m., he said.

Comments

[southdakotaboy]

Just got off the phone with both my sister in laws and here is the news. 1. Witness at Rapid City Central Highschool reported seeing a Native American man in gang colors flashing a gun just outside of the school doors at 9:45 this morning.
2. All the schools in Rapid went into lock down.
3. All schools had gaurds posted at the doors.
4. Police are clearing Central room by room and taking the students across the street to the civics center.
5. After all the students are acounted for school will be dismised.
6. Local news says no shots fired and no suspects.
7. My oldest nephew has friends at Central and they say shots were fired.
8. One sister in law says that the police do have a suspect and have them under arrest.

That all I know right now.

[Emilia Garcia]

I'm a senior that attends Rapid City Central High School. We did go into lock down at around 9:45 -- I was in the library about to give the morning video announcements. We sat there for about 3 1/2 hours and heard a lot of rumors (CNN is here, there are snipers in tree-stands and on top of the grocery store down the street, the whole city is in lock down and nobody can leave their businesses, a local elementary school was shot up, ect). After about 2 1/2 hours we began to evacuate across the street to our Civic center, accompanied by a line of police officers and some SWAT-looking uniforms with huge machine guns while some "gun dogs" and police men searched all of the cars in the parking lot. We were in the Civic Center until about 1 p.m. when our principal addressed us and told us it was all a hoax: the student who reported the gun sighting was a "credible" source at the time so they took the according actions. There was no gun, no suspect, no shots fired.
I guess in a school of 2,500 students you can't do anything short of bringing in the FBI, especially after the incident yesterday, but I really never felt threatened and everybody in the library (about 90 of us students, plus security guards, librarians and a few teachers) was extremely normal and I don't think anybody felt threatened. Most kids were text messaging family members, calling home, or passing notes. The most exciting thing that happened was that some people started urinating in water bottles and in corners of the library because they couldn't hold it anymore.