Crime & Safety

Weapon Reported, School Put On Lockdown

After a caller said a suicidal man with a knife was near Mark Twain School Wednesday, police put it on lockdown. They found the man about 10 minutes later.

 

After Niles police received a call Wednesday that a possibly suicidal man with a knife was near , police put about 125 students, parents, teachers and staff on lockdown at about 3:05 p.m.

The school dismisses students at 3 p.m. every day, so many people were still on the premises.

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Police found the man about 10 minutes later at Golf Maine Park District's Feldman Field House, at the corner of Kathy and Western, according to Nichole Gross, the principal of Mark Twain School. He had run north from the area of the school. Mark Twain is located west of Greenwood Road and south of Golf Road in Niles. 

"We put the school on lockdown as a precaution," said Sgt. Robert Tornabene of the Niles Police Department. "He subsequently was hospitalized."

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The man had no weapon when police found him, and, based on his statements, police believe he did not have a weapon throughout the course of the incident, Tornabene said.

"It may have been misidentified. It may have been a large metal object attached to a set of keys," he said.

By 3:35 p.m., everyone who had been on lockdown at Mark Twain was allowed to leave the building. 

Gross said that when they received word from the police to lock down, they didn't know the specifics of why they were being asked to do so. 

"We only knew there was an unsafe situation and we needed to lock down the building," she said. "The kids did excellent--they maintained calm."

Husband was trying to lure wife back

A police report on the matter stated that a woman had come to the school to pick up her two children, and while she was waiting in her car, her estranged husband walked up to try to talk to her. She told police he stated that he loved her and wanted her to come back home, according to the report.

After the woman retrieved her son from school, the husband asked if he could take the son for an hour, according to the report, and the woman noticed he was bleeding from the mouth and had blood on his shirt. She told police she saw what appeared to be a small knife or razor blade or box cutter in his hand, police said.

She relayed that he said, "Would you guys be happy if I died?"  The husband got up from sitting on the curb and ran northbound, the report said. At that point the school was put on lockdown.

A Niles detective who spoke to the offender said the man stated he works at a medical building and he drew his own blood and placed it in a vial, putting it over himself in an attempt to get sympathy from his wife and try to win her back. The man said he had no intention of hurting himself or his wife. Niles Fire Department personnel transported him to Advocate Lutheran General Hospital, and he went voluntarily. The wife drove to the hospital and signed papers to have him committed based on statements he had made.

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