Nearby elementary locked down because of standoff with suspect

Eric Leake

Friday, Feb. 18, 2005 | 9:41 a.m.

Henderson Police locked down an elementary school and sealed off a neighborhood Thursday while they tried to persuade a burglary suspect to come out of a house, but when they stormed the home five hours later the man was nowhere to be found.

Police said it appears the man escaped from the house much earlier.

Henderson Police Officer Todd Rasmussen, a spokesman for the department, said police were called to a burglary in the 100 block of Pacific Avenue near Boulder Highway and Lake Mead Drive shortly after 2 p.m. and spotted a suspect leaving the area.

Police followed him about a mile onto Continental Avenue where neighbors said they saw the man run with a sawed-off shotgun into an empty house, Rasmussen said.

When police talked with the home's owner, "He told us that nobody was supposed to be in his house and he didn't know who this was," Rasmussen said. Nearby homes were evacuated, streets were blocked off, traffic on Lake Mead Drive was diverted, and nearby C. T. Sewell Elementary School locked down.

"That was right about the time school was getting out," Rasmussen said. "They didn't want the kids walking in front of the house during the situation."

Hours later SWAT officers set off flash-bang distraction devices, and entered the house. They found nobody inside, Rasmussen said, adding that the man may have slipped out of the back of the house hours earlier.

Rasmussen said police do not have an accurate description of the suspect and could not say what, if anything, he had stolen.

Children at Sewell were initially locked inside and were later released to parents.

Don Griffie lives in the neighborhood of the standoff and became concerned when his granddaughter didn't come home on time. She usually walks home from school.

Griffie went to the school where he said it took two hours to retrieve his granddaughter, a fifth-grader. "It was utter chaos," he said.

Elementary students leaving the school hours after class said the ordeal was like a very long study hall.

Michael Logue Jr., 7, is used to staying after school for Safe Key. He was not scared.

"But my friend was. He hided under his desk in study time because he gets picked up early. He's not used to it," Michael said.

Erica Knight, 10, was the last student to leave the school when her grandmother picked her up exactly three hours after classes ended.

Erica said she first thought the lockdown was a drill. She used the time the best she could and finished all her homework.