A gun scare prompted a two-hour lockdown at Archbishop Ryan High School on Tuesday morning in an incident that was apparently fueled by a wayward SEPTA charter bus.
The lockdown began just before 9 a.m. and was lifted after about two hours when authorities had determined that there was no firearm on the school’s Far Northeast campus, according to Lt. Dennis Rosenbaum of Northeast Detectives.
Police were alerted to the purported threat after three Father Judge High School students notified officials of their school that they had seen a female Ryan student in a car with a young male who brandished the weapon.
The confrontation happened earlier in the morning outside of Ryan when a SEPTA charter bus driver mistakenly dropped a load of Judge students at the Ryan campus, Rosenbaum said. The Judge students were left to find alternate transportation to their school in Holmesburg.
Three Judge students were still waiting for a ride when a car approached them. Inside were a Ryan girl, in uniform, and a male who is not a student. Words were exchanged. The driver of the car flashed a gun, according to the Judge students’ account of events.
The encounter ended there. After the Judge students made it to their own school, they reported the incident to officials there, who contacted police. Detectives soon identified the Ryan student who was in the car, although she had not attended classes that morning, Rosenbaum said. Investigators were still confirming the identity of the person with the gun on Tuesday afternoon. Police believe he is 19 and did not attend Ryan. ••
