Squirrel hunt leads to Arkansas school lockdown

Officers from the Hot Springs Police and Garland County Sheriff's Department work the scene of an incident at Gardner Magnet School Wednesday, March 30, 2016. Apparently some pest control company employees walked by the school with some pellet rifles causing a teacher to hit the panic button prompting a response to the school. (The Sentinel-Record/Richard Rasmussen)
Officers from the Hot Springs Police and Garland County Sheriff's Department work the scene of an incident at Gardner Magnet School Wednesday, March 30, 2016. Apparently some pest control company employees walked by the school with some pellet rifles causing a teacher to hit the panic button prompting a response to the school. (The Sentinel-Record/Richard Rasmussen)

HOT SPRINGS -- A pest control company attempting to rid a residence of a squirrel problem triggered a school lockdown Wednesday and a brisk response from local law enforcement agencies.

Hot Springs police officers and Garland County sheriff's deputies responded to Gardner Magnet School, 525 Hammond Drive, after a teacher saw three men with what she thought were rifles near the school and activated her Rave Panic Button smartphone app.

The app has buttons to summon help for medical situations, fire, or police, and a large red button for an "active shooter" situation. The app dials 911 and sends an instant alert to other school employees, said Doug Upshaw, Hot Springs School District director of human resources and communication.

The teacher was outside the school at around 7:57 a.m. Wednesday when she saw three men with what appeared to be rifles near the school, said Capt. Chris Chapmond of the Hot Springs Police Department. The teacher used the app, which contacts a 911 dispatcher directly, and the school was put under lockdown.

Police said in a news release that a school employee told its dispatcher three men with rifles were walking near the front of the school. Within two minutes, patrol units, special operations units, and SWAT officers from the police and sheriff's departments responded.

"We created a perimeter around the school and the three suspects were located," Chapmond said. "The Panic Button worked as it should and the kids and faculty were secure inside."

It was determined the suspects were employees of a local pest control company, armed with pellet rifles, who had responded to a complaint from a customer in the area.

One of the employees fired a shot at a squirrel near an apartment but missed. The squirrel fled in the direction of Gardner Magnet School, and the exterminators were chasing after it when the teacher saw them and activated the alarm, the release said.

State Desk on 03/31/2016

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