Three Arapahoe County elementary schools were briefly locked down this morning after a sheriff’s office SWAT team surrounded a Centennial home where a suspect fired two shots from a rifle.
By early afternoon, the lockdown was lifted at Mark Hopkins, Twain and Highland elementaries, and authorities had an 18-year-old man in custody on suspicion of firing the shots.
The commotion started about 9:30 this morning when two men said they went to a house in the 6800 block of South Logan Street to retrieve some things they claim belong to them. There, they met the suspect, who Arapahoe County Sheriff Grayson Robinson said was staying at the house. The people got into an argument, and Robinson said the suspect grabbed a rifle and fired two shots.
It was unclear, Robinson said, whether the shots were intended to his the other two men, but nobody was injured. Sheriff’s deputies were called, and they quickly surrounded the home with a SWAT team and negotiators. Reverse 911 was used to notify nearly 400 homes in the area, and the schools were put on lockdown as a precaution.
Robinson said 18-year-old Matthew Lowderback was arrested at about 1:30 when he ended the standoff and left the home. Lowderback is being held for investigation of menacing with a deadly weapon.
Staff writer John Ingold can be reached at 720-929-0898 or jingold@denverpost.com.
