Armed Berrien County Sheriff’s Deputies, State Police and St. Joseph and St. Joseph Township Police and Fire teams showed up enmasse this afternoon after an Emergency Alert message was distributed locking down the LECO neighorhood in Southtown St. Joseph on word of a possible gunman in the facility.
Employees were evacuated at one point and heavily protected officials were congregating in a parking lot behind the plant near shipping and receiving docks at the corporate headquarters building in St. Joseph.
All other entrances to the facility also had squad cars from various jurisdictions keeping an eye on the situation. Here is the message that was issued by the Emergency Alert System to smartphone users this afternoon:
The St. Joseph Department of Public Safety is asking all persons to lockdown or stay away from State Street near Hilltop Avenue in south St. Joseph as there is a potentially armed individual in the area.
Lockdown or stay away from the area.Despite that message, traffic continued to flow along Hilltop and both South State Street and Lakeview Avenue even as troops were amassing in the parking lot nearby.This message was updated from police moments ago:On June 21, 2017 at approximately 12:00 hours, the Saint Joseph Department of Public Safety was dispatched to one of the LECO Corporation buildings, located at 3000 Lakeview Ave., to investigate the report of a suspicious individual.
As a precautionary measure, all LECO employees were evacuated from the building.
The Berrien County Sheriff’s Office Tactical Response Unit is on scene conducting a search of the building to ensure that the building is safe and secure.
There are no reported injuries at this time and the search of the building is being conducted as a precautionary measure to ensure that no incidents of criminal activity or work place violence has occurred.
This is not an active shooter incident, but an investigation of a suspicious person possibly being inside the building.
Further information will be released in the near future in a future press release.
UPDATE
The potential suspect was located outside of Berrien County and was not found on the LECO property as initially reported.
