Christian Robles, Contributing Photographer

Wilbur Cross High School in East Rock went into lockdown on Wednesday afternoon after police were notified of reports of a student with a firearm. 

New Haven Police Department communications officer Christian Bruckhart said that a student at Cross apparently showed “what other students thought was a handgun.” Once rumors of the alleged weapon spread from students to staff, a staff member alerted a school resource officer who called the police around 12:50 p.m. Bruckhart said that the school was immediately placed in lockdown “out of an abundance of caution,” and that the student did not make any threats. 

“There was nothing to indicate that the student was going to hurt anyone,” Bruckhart said. 

Once the school was in lockdown, officers worked to identify the student in question. Reviewing surveillance footage, they learned that the student had left the school shortly after displaying the alleged handgun, though the police could not confirm if the weapon was real. After about two hours, the lockdown was lifted. 

Maya Harpaz-Levy, a junior at Wilbur Cross, was in a meeting with a counselor when the lockdown began. 

“We were stuck in a tiny room for two hours,” Harpaz-Levy wrote to the News. “People were very relieved to leave, and they were complaining about the lockdown. It didn’t really seem like students were concerned.”

According to a press release sent out by the NHPD on Wednesday night, detectives located the wanted student after a “brief canvass.” The student was found with a second student, who was in possession of a BB gun. Bruckhart told the News that the NHPD determined that the BB gun was the weapon that triggered the lockdown. BB guns shoot small, metallic pellets that can pierce the skin. At a high velocity, they can be lethal, but are less dangerous than firearms.

The two students were taken into custody. According to the NHPD press release, the student who “caused the lockdown” was charged with possession of a weapon on school grounds, threatening in the second degree and breach of peace in the second degree. The student found with the BB gun was charged with carrying a dangerous weapon, interfering with an officer and breach of peace in the second degree.

“We are encouraging students and staff to attend school tomorrow because we believe it to be safe,” New Haven Public Schools spokesperson Justin Harmon wrote to the News on Wednesday afternoon.

Wilbur Cross High School is the largest comprehensive high school in the New Haven Public Schools, with over 1,700 students.