Bank robbery in Fort Myers locks down Riverdale High School after morning power outage

Tomas Rodriguez, Fort Myers News-Press
Updated ·2 min read
An armed robbery at Truist, 14490 Palm Beach Blvd., on Tuesday, Oct. 31, 2023, placed Riverdale High School on lockdown.
An armed robbery at Truist, 14490 Palm Beach Blvd., on Tuesday, Oct. 31, 2023, placed Riverdale High School on lockdown.

The school day got off to a rough start at Riverdale High School as a power outage crippled normal operations and a nearby bank robbery put the school on lockdown.

The Lee County high school dealt with the challenges with 20 minutes to spare between both. An armed robbery around 9:30 a.m. at Truist, 14490 Palm Beach Blvd., in Fort Myers, launched a search for the suspect and placed the school on lockout.

The bank is about 2 miles from the school.

The robber, wearing a black baseball hat, sunglasses and a denim jacket, wielded a firearm and witnesses said he fired once, but didn't strike anyone.

Southwest Florida Crime Stoppers is offering a reward of up to $3,000 for anyone whose tips lead to an arrest in the armed robbery. Tipsters may reach them at (800) 780-8477.

In a message shared by Rob Spicker, spokesperson for the Lee County School District, Principal Scott Cook said power had been restored and the school day continued as normal.

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Lockout follows power outage at Riverdale High School

Cook said that early Tuesday about half of their campus lost power, affecting the HVAC system, lights, phone lines and internet.

He added that students remained safe until the power was restored around 9 a.m.

Then, he said, about 20 minutes later, they went into a "lockout" due to an active off-campus investigation by Lee County Sheriff’s Office regarding involving a bank robbery.

Due to the lockout, Cook said, they couldn't allow anyone on campus.

"During both of these events, we do understand some of you wanted to sign your child out," he wrote to parents. "However, we were without a way to verify identities, communicate by phone, access FOCUS, etc. so we could not safely process those requests."

Once power was restored, he said they were unable to process sign out requests due to the lockout.

Tomas Rodriguez is a Breaking/Live News Reporter for the Naples Daily News and The News-Press. You can reach Tomas at TRodriguez@gannett.com or 772-333-5501. Connect with him on Threads @tomasfrobeltran, Instagram @tomasfrobeltran, Facebook @tomasrodrigueznews and Twitter @TomasFRoBeltran.

This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: Bank robbery locks down Riverdale High School after power outage