On Friday, April 23 at approximately 8 a.m. Lake Stevens Police officers were dispatched to a priority burglary in the 2800 block of 107th Ave. NE where a witness reported seeing someone trying to kick in a neighbor’s back door.

The suspect was described as a white male, approximately six feet tall, wearing a white shirt and a black baseball cap.

Officers used a search dog to try to track the suspect, however, the suspect was not located.
Lake Stevens High School and Highland Elementary School were placed on lockdown as a precautionary measure while the search was being conducted.

“The district doesn’t make that decision, the police department makes that decision,” Arlene Hulten, Community Relations Director for the Lake Stevens School District said. “They advised us to go into lockdown and we followed their orders.”

The students were in lockdown just over an hour while police continued their search for the suspect.
“We did it for the safety of the kids and to prevent anybody from accessing our schools. Neither school was ever at risk,” Hulten explained. “It was precautionary and we’ve worked with the police department before in instances like this, we are always going to error on the side of being safe and do everything we can to do what the police recommend and to keep the kids safe.” The school district was in contact with the police during the entire situation.

“We were in contact with Sgt. Brooks and Chief Celori the whole time which is really unique to a community,” Hulten said. “We feel really fortunate to have that communication.”
Letters from the school district explaining what occurred that morning were sent home with each student on Friday. This case is under investigation.

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