By Hannah Dellinger, Dug Begley and Anna Bauman
Source Houston Chronicle
Police and panicked parents scrambled to Heights High School Tuesday afternoon, in frantic response to a false report that a gunman had shot 10 people in a room on the 2,400-student Houston ISD campus.
The school went into lock down around 1 p.m., and police officers found the room locked and immediately breached the door, according to Chief Troy Finner. Two sweeps of the school found nothing, according to the Houston Police Department.
"We have no injuries here," Finner said at a news briefing as a crowd of parents stood at an intersection near the high school. "Thank god for that."
Officials intend to determine who made the hoax call and hold that person accountable. Finner said police believe the call may have come from outside the school.
"There was no active shooter here — there was a fight," said Constable Alan Rosen.
An email notified parents later that Heights High, as well as nearby Hogg Middle and Harvard and Travis Elementary schools, were placed in lockdown.
"As a precautionary measure, we went into lockdown mode," Heights Principal Wendy Hampton said in an email to parents. " Houston Police Department and HISD Police are onsite and continue to investigate, though no evidence has been found to substantiate the threat. We take all threats seriously, as the safety of our students and staff is always our top priority."
Immanuel Lutheran, which runs a child care center at their Heights location one block from the high school campus, opened a convocation hall so that parents could wait in air conditioning for their children to be dismissed.
Quedia Daniels, 38, rushed to the campus from work after hearing a television report. She immediately called her son, and demanded he stay on the phone with her.
"I'm not leaving until I have my son come out," she said.
Numerous parents gathered, only to have police keep them two blocks away, but assuring them there was no evidence of a shooting. Parents were at times directed south of the school grounds, then north of it to rendezvous with their children.
Many parents expressed they were confused about where to go to pick up their kids.
"As if this isn't bad enough?" said Shannon Velasquez, a parent. "I feel horrible. It's a terrible feeling — to not know."
Annette Garza Delgado left work and rushed to her daughter's high school when she got a text from Amanda, 14, that said, "Mom we just went on lockdown. I'm scared."
Delgado tried to calm her breathing as she made the 20-minute drive from Bellaire.
Her daughter called and whispered, "Come get me, come get me."
She told her mother that she could hear sirens outside and law enforcement officers rushing through the hallways as she and her classmates hunkered in a classroom.
The cops came in to check on them and let them know that they had the situation under control, Delgado's daughter told her.
Parents parked cars up and down the street on blocks surrounding the school, including many in the median on Heights Boulevard. They ran and walked with phones pressed to their ears while law enforcement officers and patrol cars surrounded the school.
The false report at Heights was not the only one Tuesday where police rushed to schools allegedly under siege. Waco Police, in a social media post around 2:40 p.m., said rumors of a shooter at Waco High School were unfounded. Police in Los Angeles also confirmed a reported shooting at Hollywood High School was a hoax.
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