Reports of an armed man spotted walking the grounds of the N.P. Moss campus earlier this month are bogus, says Lafayette Parish School System Superintendent Dr. Pat Cooper.
[Editor's Note: This article was updated to reflect new information provided by the Lafayette Police Department.]
Reports of an armed man spotted walking the grounds of the N.P. Moss campus earlier this month are bogus, says Lafayette Parish School System Superintendent Dr. Pat Cooper.
The Feb. 8 incident sparked a quick reaction from the Lafayette Police Department, resulting in the school's early dismissal and the campus being placed on lockdown for the remainder of the day.
According to Cooper, who spoke Wednesday with The IND, the whole thing was a rumor hatched by one of the school's students.
"A man did come on the campus that day," says Cooper. "But it was to retrieve a cell phone stolen by [one of the] students. There was never a gun on campus."
Lafayette Police spokesman Cpl. Paul Mouton, in an email sent Thursday to The IND, confirms that the man seen on campus that day was never armed. Mouton writes:
The 15 year old male juvenile had earlier stole the cellphone of the individual that had entered the campus. When the juvenile saw the individual on campus he falsely reported that the individual had a gun.
The student was later charged with simple robbery and terrorizing, and was booked into juvenile detention on Feb. 14.