CT elementary school custodian helps diffuse situation involving ‘distraught’ individual with stolen gun
A custodian helped diffuse a situation involving a man armed with a gun who was experiencing some kind of a crisis outside an elementary school in New Haven Wednesday.
The custodian was arriving at Lincoln Bassett School in the morning hours while classes were already in session when he noticed the armed individual who appeared to be “distraught,” officials with the New Haven Public School system wrote in a message to parents and guardians Wednesday.
The custodian approached the individual and was successful in “de-escalating the situation,” according to the school system.
Members of the New Haven Police Department were notified at about 9:58 a.m. and responded to take custody of the armed man. Police said the individual was found lying naked on an area of concrete in front of the school. The man, who appeared disoriented, was taken in an ambulance to Yale New Haven Hospital “under a committal for a psychiatric evaluation,” New Haven police Sgt. Cherelle Carr said.
“Students were indoors and did not witness the event,” school officials told parents and guardians. “They were safe at all times. We are grateful for the courageous intervention of the staff member.”
Carr said police later discovered the gun involved, which had been safely removed from the suspect by the school’s custodian, had been reported stolen. The man, who did not have a valid pistol permit, was charged for possessing a stolen gun, Carr said.
