An elementary school in Golden was put on lockout Tuesday when school officials and students saw a group of men in an adjoining backyard shooting a weapon.
As it turned out, the weapon in question was a BB gun and police cleared the scene almost as quickly as it began. However, said Golden police Captain Daryl Hollingsworth, “if I was a parent there, I would be concerned too.”
The incident began just after noon, when police was told that witnesses at Mitchell Elementary School, located near Fourth and Illinois Streets, had seen the men shooting.
When the call was made to police, the school went on lock out, which meant that while classes continued, the doors were locked and no one allowed to leave or enter the building.
The men were in a home that sits at the bottom on a slope that rises up to the school grounds. Hollingsworth said there were five adult men at the house, with two of them shooting a series of makeshift targets placed on the ground near the bottom of the slope.
“There were some kids outside who looked down and saw the men with the weapon,” Hollingsworth said. “They alerted a teacher’s aide, who called it in to the school’s office, which then called us.”
Hollingsworth said the men were brought in for questioning and released, with two of them receiving citations for reckless endangerment.
