A lockout placed on Park Elementary School was lifted around noon Wednesday after the Durango Police Department responded to an armed suspect holed up in an apartment building near the Sonic Drive-In on East Eighth Avenue, Karla Sluis, spokeswoman for Durango School District 9-R, said in an interview Wednesday.
The Park Elementary lockout went into effect a little before 10:30 a.m. About an hour later, police radio dispatch said officers had secured a perimeter around the complex where the suspect, who was described as armed and suicidal, had barricaded himself.
Sluis said the lockout was lifted at 12:05 p.m. and that police were working with Axis Health’s System’s Co-Responder Team, a behavioral and mental health response team, to deal with the suspect, who was still barricaded in the apartment building as of 12:22 p.m.
Students and staff members were considered safe throughout the lockout, and classes continued as normal, according to a statement on the Park Elementary website.
Texts, emails and phone calls were sent to parents when the lockout was initiated, and students were allowed to contact their parents to let them know they were safe, which is the standard protocol for a lockout, Sluis said.
A brief statement was also published on the Park Elementary website announcing the lockout:
“Park Elementary School is currently in lockout. All students are safe. This is a precautionary measure recommended by the Durango Police Department in response to an incident outside the school. Parents should not come to campus and stand by for messaging. There is no threat to the school. Students and staff are safe, and classes are continuing as normal.”
Durango police initiate lockout situations by contacting Kathy Morris, school safety director, who communicates with the schools.
According to Morris, law enforcement determines the range of the lockout perimeter, Sluis said.
“It can be fluid depending on the nature of the threat and if the location of a threat is known,” she said in a text to The Durango Herald. “If the suspect lands on school grounds we then go into ‘lockdown.’”
The Durango Police Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
cburney@durangoherald.com
