Connecticut Schools In Lockdown As Police Search For ‘Suspicious Person’

Several schools in Connecticut have been put under lockdown following reports of a suspicious person with a gun in the area.

Fox News reports that schools in Ridgefield, Conn., are currently under lockdown. Ridgefield is about 20 miles from Newtown, where several children were killed last week.

Ridgefield Superintendent Deborah Low said:

“Due to a report of a possibly suspicious person in the Branchville Train Station area, all schools have been put into lockdown. Branchville Elementary school buses have been diverted to East Ridge Middle School and BES students are in the auditorium.”

Tensions in the area are high following the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting and officials have said that they are worried about copycat attacks. A man was arrested over the weekend with 47 guns after allegedly calling in an attack to a nearby school and earlier this morning a man was arrested in Bristol, Connecticut for making threats to a school.

Lt. J. Paul Vance, Connecticut State Police spokesman, said that police have been told by residents in Ridgefield that the suspicious suspect was carrying a rifle.

Vance said: “We’re not sure what the situation is. Ridgefield is handling that situation.”

The Business Insider reports that schools in the neighboring towns of Easton and Redding have been put under lockdown due to the Ridgeland situation.

Breaking: Easton schools also in lockdown due to the Ridgefield incident. #Wfsb

— WFSB Channel 3 (@WFSBnews) December 17, 2012

The Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was the third deadliest school massacre in American history and it’s easy to see why people are on edge today. Hopefully the suspicious person in Ridgeway, Connecticut, turns out to be nothing.