An email sent to parents says a student may have yelled that they had a gun in a “possibly joking manner,” provoking the law enforcement response. The police chief says it was a “hoax.”
Law enforcement officers responded to a report of a student with a gun at Slinger Middle School and took a suspect into custody, but they did not find a gun, and there are no injures, the Washington County Sheriff’s Department has confirmed.
At the scene, Slinger Police Chief Dean Schmidt said it “was a hoax.” Another student reported that a student said he had a gun. “There never was a gun,” the chief said. “What we see here is a lot of response. This is a lot, but if anything did ever happen, it’s nice to know this is what we would get….Slinger is a good School District. This is a safe school. This is a safe village.”
“A student made a comment that he had a gun in the school and was going into the school into the stairwell,” the chief said. “One of the students made the comment as a joke….The student admitted it was a hoax.” The chief said he was “irritated with it. It’s a foolish statement to make based on what has been going on the last week and a half.” The chief was the first person at the scene, along with another officer. They entered the school.
“Law Enforcement Officers responded to Slinger Middle School to a report of a student with a gun. A suspect has been taken into custody,” the Washington County Sheriff’s Department wrote in a statement. “There are no injuries. No gun has been located but the school remains on lockdown while a search of the school is conducted. Parents should meet at the staging area at Kettle Moraine Bowl. There is nothing further at this time.”
An email sent to parents said that a student in the middle school, in the hallway, “yelled that they had a gun. We are processing through that right now. At this point, it is still an active investigation but we believe this may have been a case of a foolish statement coming from a possibly joking manner.”
BREAKING: Slinger Middle School, High School and Slinger Elementary are all on lockdown. This email sent to parents in the district says a student at the middle school hallway yelled they had a gun. Police are actively investigating. @CBS58 pic.twitter.com/FcVo1Pyhw8
— Emerson Lehmann (@ELehmannTV) May 27, 2022
Previously, the department wrote, “URGENT REQUEST: Slinger Middle School is currently on lockdown. PLEASE AVOID THE AREA. Updates will be posted as they become available. We have no further information at this time.”
Wisconsin Right Now’s Jim Piwowarczyk was the first reporter at the scene, where parents are gathered, and there is a massive law enforcement response. He says several ambulances are at the scene, but that parents have also not been told that there are any injuries.
News broke of the tactical situation around 12:30 p.m. on Friday, May 27, 2022.
We contacted the Slinger Police Department. “I do not have any information I can give out to you,” the woman who answered the phone said. She said she wasn’t out at the response scene.
The Washington County Sheriff’s Department declined to give any information over the phone but then released the statement on Facebook.
We had heard from sources that there was a tactical situation at Slinger Middle School. One source said early on it may involve a report of a student with a gun in a corridor. As noted, the department later confirmed that they did not locate a weapon.
On the scanner, law enforcement officers talked about a place for family members and ambulances and referred to a “staging area.” At one point, they spoke about a “secondary staging” area. This is a developing story. Stay tuned for more information.
