Police investigate false threat at Southridge High School

News Release from Kennewick Police Department

KENNWICK – On December 9, 2022, at approximately 1130 hours, the Kennewick Police Department responded to a 911 call of an alleged active shooter at Southridge High School, 3520 Southridge Blvd. The caller provided a suspect and weapon description. Additional information about a possible location at the school was also provided.

Hearing the call over the radio, our Southridge school resource officer immediately placed the school in lockdown and began searching for any threat to the students and staff, none was initially located. Out of an abundance of caution, Sage Crest Elementary and Chinook Middle School were also placed into lockdown. The initial responding officer arrived at the school within five minutes and was quickly joined by several other area law enforcement officers from around the region, including: Benton County Sheriff’s Office, Richland Police Department, Pasco Police Department, West Richland Police Department, Franklin County Sheriff’s Office, Washington State Patrol, Prosser Police Department, Moxee Police Department and special agents from several of our federal partners. In addition our regional law enforcement response we also received a coordinated response from the Kennewick Fire Department and their regional fire partners. The officers quickly organized search teams and entered the school to methodically clear every classroom, office and storage area verifying there was no threat, and all students and staff were safe.

Throughout the incident, we worked with the staff at the Kennewick School District to organize a staging area for parents responding to the area and keeping the community aware of the situation. At the completion of the incident, the lockdown was lifted and students were allowed to leave for the day.

Thanks to the coordinated response from area police and fire resources, our partnership with the Kennewick School District and cooperation from area parents and community, the incident lasted approximately one hour-fifty minutes from the time of dispatch to the lifting of the lockdown and, there were no reported injuries throughout the incident.

Our criminal investigations division immediately began working on identifying where the 911 call originated from and found similar incidents were occurring across the Pacific Northwest. They will continue this investigation to identify the responsible individual and to hold them accountable.

In the near future area police and fire personnel with debrief the incident with the Kennewick School District in an effort to continue improving our response to ensure the safety of our students, staff and community.

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Elkhorn Media Group

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