Shooting Threat Puts Forest Hills High School On Lockdown: NYPD

FOREST HILLS, QUEENS -- Forest Hills High School remained on lockdown for hours Thursday as police investigated a chilling shooting threat scrawled onto a desk by a student.

Police got a call from someone inside the school on Wednesday at 11 a.m. after a student found a note scribbled on a desk indicating that another student in the school had a gun, an NYPD spokesman told Patch.

But several Forest Hills High parents claim that anywhere from a few hours to the evening before the note was called in, their children had learned of a threat written on the desk to shoot the school up on Friday.

Among them was Jenn, who asked her last name not be used. She told Patch her daughter, a senior at the school, learned of the threat at around 8 a.m. When her daughter began frantically calling and texting Jenn about a lockdown later that morning, she feared the worst.

"It's panic, you know, it's the last thing you want to hear," Jenn said. "I'm at work in Manhattan, obviously very far from my child, so I just felt completely helpless."

Jenn was among several parents who also saw a photo of the alleged threat circulating on Facebook, which read: "Im going to shoot up the school on friday maybe I will maybe I wont depends if people become my friends...I have no friends so Im going to target the people in the basement and work my way up"

An NYPD spokesman couldn't confirm whether that was the note that spurred the call, but said officers were investigating the threat and searching the school's premises at 67-01 110th Street for weapons.

Students stayed huddled inside locked classrooms and were told not to use their phones during the lockdown, which lasted for nearly three hours before they were released, Jenn said. Though she got periodic updates from her daughter, Jenn said she heard nothing from school officials.

"I didn't get any communication, so I sat here just refreshing Google and waiting for some type of news to come up," she said. "It would have been nice if we got a quick phone call just telling us our kids were safe."

The NYC Department of Education could not immediately be reached for comment.

The NYPD's 112th precinct took to Twitter to announced a precautionary "soft lockdown" at the high school and reassure the public that kids and teachers were all okay. The precinct tweeted again at 2 p.m. that the lockdown had ended and a person was in custody for the "hoax."

But some parents are still on edge. Rocio Zegarra, whose daughter attends the school and also learned of the threat Wednesday evening, told Patch the threat left her worried for her child's safety.

"She said the threat is for Friday so now I do not know if (I should) send her to school tomorrow," Zegarra said.

The lockdown came just a day after students across the country joined in on a National Walkout Day to protest gun violence on the one-month anniversary of the Marjory Douglas Stoneman High School shooting, where 17 were killed.

Soft lockdown at Forest Hills High School. Everything is alright, it’s just precautionary, kids and teachers all ok.
— NYPD 112th Precinct (@NYPD112Pct) March" class="redactor-linkify-object">https://twitter.com/NYPD112Pct... 15, 2018

Check back for more information on this developing story.

Lead photo via Google Maps.