Poughkeepsie Middle School: Power outage prompted false report of shooting

Poughkeepsie City School District Superintendent Eric Rosser said a citywide power outage on Tuesday prompted an unfounded report of a shooting at Poughkeepsie Middle School.

Amid the outage, a student called a parent, telling them he heard a gunshot, which Rosser said was "inaccurate." That parent then called police, he said.

Multiple police agencies responded and cleared the school at roughly 1:20 p.m., city police Capt. Richard Wilson said. There was no evidence of a shooting, police interviewed the student who made the call, and all students and staff were unharmed, Rosser said.

The district decided to end the school day early following the false alarm, sending students home. School will be open on schedule Wednesday.

The city has seen multiple incidents of gun violence in recent months tied to young residents. On Nov. 15, a shooting incident outside Poughkeepsie High School led to the arrest of a 13-year-old; nobody was injured.

City Mayor Rob Rolison called the Tuesday incident "unfortunate," but noted the fact that the student made the report, and the parent relayed it to police "was a good thing."

Several parents flocked to the school after hearing rumors of the shooting and seeing emergency response vehicles zooming toward the area of the building.

Rosser addressed parents at roughly 2:15 p.m. Before that, the district sent out text, email and voice messages notifying parents of power outages at the middle and high schools and that the rumors of the shooting were false.

City and town of Poughkeepsie police, state police, the Dutchess County Sheriff's Office and Metropolitan Transportation Authority police responded.

This article originally appeared on Poughkeepsie Journal: Poughkeepsie Middle School shooting report unfounded: Rolison