A Brandon, Man., high school was locked down for part of Thursday morning after local police received an anonymous tip alleging two young men were going to the school to assault a student.
Brandon police said the caller, who made the tip around 10:50 a.m. Thursday, claimed the suspects had access to a handgun. Police did not know if the suspects had the weapon with them.
At that point, police contacted the principal at Crocus Plains Regional Secondary School and the school was locked down for half an hour.
Police later found one of the suspects at the Brandon Shoppers Mall, nearly three kilometres away from the high school. A replica handgun was found at that suspect's house.
The 18-year-old suspect was in custody Thursday afternoon, and police were continuing to search for the second suspect.
Sgt. Marc Alain said the suspects may not necessarily face charges.
"They weren't actually doing anything at the school. They weren't anywhere near the school when we found them. And they obviously didn't have any weapons in their possession when we found them, because the replica handgun was found at their house," Alain said.
The suspects were not students at Crocus Plains, police said. The potential victim, a 16-year-old male, was a student at the school but was not there Thursday.
Students left wondering
Crocus Plains Grade 12 student Joanna Jacobson said Thursday she initially thought the lockdown was just a drill.
"You never think that it would happen, but today kind of made me realize it's pretty possible," Jacobson said.
"There's two students who potentially had guns and it could have been disastrous, so yeah, it's really scary."
Jacobson said she and her friends sent text messages from their cellphones during the lockdown, asking other students what was going on.
"I had a couple of friends around me who were kind of getting pretty nervous and we were all, you know, texting on our cellphones and stuff," Jacobson said.
"Like wondering, asking people in different classrooms what was going on, and the rumours started coming out. You know, people started saying there were guns and stuff and that it was pretty serious."
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