A recently enrolled student in the NIles Community School system caused a major uproar briefly today, forcing the Niles High School to go into a lockdown mode while police gave chase and searched for him following word that he had brought a gun to school.
A Niles City Police Officer got word from high school officials around 11 o'clock this morning that a student was believed to have a handgun in the school. With additional officers assisting, the School Officer attempted to make contact with the student in question. The officers spotted the student in a hallway and as they approached him, he began to flee down the hall.
The student flew out of one of the high school doors and continued on foot through the neighborhood adjacent to the school. Police in pursuit ordered the student to stop, but he refused to do so and that's when the school immediately went into lockdown.
While other officers began setting up containment around the neighborhood, the officers on foot continued to search for the student who was ultimately found hiding in the shed of a nearby residence. He was taken into custody without further incident and the school lockdown was lifted after being in place for about ten minutes.
In the ensuing search of the student's locker, an airsoft pistol was found. Police say that the airgun had characteristics of, and appeared to be, a real handgun. The student is a sixteen-year-old male who recently enrolled in the Niles School system. He has been lodged at the Berrien County Juvenile Center on preliminary charges of resisting police and illegal entry (into the private shed where he was found hiding).
Nobody was injured in any of today's action.
