The Echo

From:  http://www.thenewsherald.com/articles/2010/01/30/news/doc4b647ca1c5070055293122.txt

GIBRALTAR: Students' text messages add fuel to fire during lockdown

Published: Saturday, January 30, 2010
By Jackie Harrison-Martin

GIBRALTAR — Students at three schools might have been on an emergency lockdown Wednesday morning, but their cell phones apparently were not.

While a massive manhunt was under way for a suspect fleeing from police, some students at Carlson High School, Shumate Middle School and Parsons Elementary School were busy texting parents about what they thought was occurring at their schools.

Police Chief Raymond Canterbury said Thursday that untrue rumors were running rampant throughout the city, upsetting parents.

He said some of the unfounded messages said:
Someone was in one of the buildings and shot two students.
A gunman was inside Carlson.
A man who killed children in Delaware was on the loose.
A man being hunted by police was cornered on the Carlson football field.
A gunman was inside one of the schools with students as hostages.

Canterbury said those text messages contributed to the confusion, but police were given some misinformation, as well.

He explained Thursday what really transpired.

Canterbury said Gibraltar police were contacted Tuesday evening by the U.S. Marshals Service, which said it had information that a suspect it was tracking — Daemont L. Wheeler, 29, of Delaware — was hiding in Kingsbridge Apartments.

Initial reports that he was wanted on a homicide warrant proved to be wrong.

Wheeler is suspected of shooting his mother’s boyfriend in Delaware after an argument Nov. 13. The boyfriend survived.

Canterbury said Wheeler is facing charges of felonious assault with intent to murder.

Canterbury said Gibraltar officers, with the assistance of police from Brownstown Township, Trenton, Rockwood and the U.S. Marshals Service, went after Wheeler, but he fled into a wooded area north of Carlson and west of West Jefferson Avenue.

“There is no way he could have spent the night in the woods,” Canterbury said. “He would not have survived the cold.”

Canterbury said he contacted Carlson Principal Bill Stevenson and apprised him of the situation.

Canterbury said a member of the Detroit Fugitive Task Force, a division of the U.S. Marshals Service, told Gibraltar police they were convinced Wheeler was no longer in the area. He said he contacted Stevenson again and, based on that information, told him schools should open Wednesday as scheduled.

Nevertheless, bus drivers were informed of the events and police were told to keep an eye out for anyone suspicious, Canterbury said.

Police went back on high alert for Wheeler when a bus driver and a couple of residents called to say there was someone suspicious near the railroad tracks between West Jefferson and Old Fort Road.

Another call came in about a suspicious man seen in the Meadowland subdivision. The description fit Wheeler and police mobilized again, this time bringing in officers from Flat Rock, Trenton, Rockwood, Woodhaven, Brownstown, the U.S. Border Patrol and the Downriver Special Weapons and Tactics team.

Gibraltar police Sgt. Larry Williams was first to confirm spotting Wheeler head into the woods.

With more than 30 officers and two police dogs, a perimeter was set up to flush Wheeler north toward Middle Gibraltar Road.

Woodhaven and Border Patrol officers spotted him come out of the woods. As they approached, he surrendered without incident and lay on the ground.

Canterbury said Wheeler was at least a mile away from the locked-down schools and students were never in danger.

“I believe he did leave the area, but came back,” Canterbury said. “Someone may have picked him up. His clothes were dirty and he had 20 cents in his pocket.”

Canterbury said he believes Wheeler might have returned to the apartment area because he had no money and nowhere else to go. The apartment was rented by telephone by a woman in Delaware, Canterbury said.

Police said it is their understanding that the woman told an employee at the apartment complex that someone else was going to be coming there to stay.

Canterbury said the U.S. Marshals Service might be looking for anyone who assisted Wheeler, but Gibraltar police are no longer involved in the case.

Wheeler was taken to the Gibraltar jail, where he stayed for about an hour before U.S. marshals took custody of him.

"He’s probably in Detroit in federal lockup now,” Canterbury said. “He most likely will be extradited back to Delaware.”

Police don’t know why Wheeler was in Gibraltar or how he got here from Delaware. They believe he might have connections in Detroit.

Canterbury said telephones were “ringing off the hook” during the ordeal from concerned residents and parents with children in the schools.

A few parents were critical of the Police Department’s handling of the situation and not making sure school was closed.

One parent sent an e-mail to The News-Herald Newspapers, criticizing the media and police for not informing residents sooner.

Some others, such as Dee Gordon, applauded the swift efforts of police to arrest Wheeler. She praised teachers at Parsons, where her grandson attends.

“Those teachers put themselves in harm’s way to rush the children inside the school,” Gordon said. “I was there when it all went down, and the staff went beyond the call of duty. The police called the school every hour, so the staff was well informed. I think the police did an awesome job.”

Canterbury said it is unfathomable to him that anyone would think he would put students in harm’s way, including his own.

He has a son and a daughter attending Carlson and a daughter at Shumate who were in the lockdown.