Schools locked down during search for suspect
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Concerned parents lined sidewalks outside three area public schools Thursday as Prince William SWAT unit searched for a murder suspect.
About 1,900 students at Marumsco and Elizabeth Vaughan elementary schools and Woodbridge Middle School were not allowed to leave campus after Prince William County police received a report that murder suspect Ronald Gerald Kendall had barricaded himself in a nearby house on Culpeper Drive.
The 20-year-old is wanted in connection with the slaying of Robert Phillipps Jr., 24, who was shot to death in the 1200 block of Bayside Avenue on Tuesday night.
The SWAT unit surrounded a home in the 2100 block of Culpeper Drive around after 2 p.m. Thursday. Police remained staged on the street for about five hours and eventually raided the home using gas as they entered, according to witnesses.
Kendall was not inside the house and remains at large, according to Erika Hernandez, Prince William police spokeswoman.
"I have no idea what is going on inside of there," said Armie DeLacruz, whose child was locked inside Marumsco Elementary School for more than three hours after the regular 3 p.m. dismissal. The school is located just blocks from Culpeper Drive.
More than 60 parents who lined up outside of Marumsco Hills Elementary before 3 p.m. to pick up their children only found a police barricade and officials telling them to wait.
"I've got one little one in there and we are just waiting here for him to get out," said Miguel Benitez, who was waiting for his son to be released from the school.
Benitez said he and his wife, Monique, moved from Los Angeles more than a year ago to escape the problems of the inner city. He said this situation reminds him of living in Southern California.
Parents would wait for nearly three more hours before the school system told them they were evacuating students from Marumsco Elementary to nearby Fred M. Lynn Middle School.
"Fred Lynn Middle School is the reunification site where parents can come and pick up their kids," said Irene Comer of Prince William County Schools.
The evacuation from Vaughan Elementary started at 5:30 p.m. By 7:30, all three schools had been evacuated. Automated phone messages released to parents by the schools attempted to keep parents informed as the situation rapidly changed.
Residents who were evacuated from homes on Culpeper Drive looked on as police used loud speakers and sirens to instruct Kendall to come out of the house with his hands up. All vehicle and pedestrian traffic in the area was stopped.
"I got home from work today and saw a police car pull up behind me," said a neighbor who lives three doors from the home where police suspected Kendall to be. She asked not to be identified. "As soon as I got out of my car, I started seeing rifles."
Amy Tromba, the parent of an eighth-grader at Woodbridge Middle School, said she was satisfied with the way officials handled the situation.
"I would much more prefer this than to think that somebody was in the school holding our kids hostage," Tromba said Thursday at the middle school on York Drive.
Tromba said she was reassured by Skyles Calhoun, the principal at Woodbridge Middle School.
"His suggestion to everybody was just go home and wait for the e-mails, because you're going to have to show your ID to get your kid," Tromba said.
"If I have to wait six, seven hours to get my kid out of safety, I'd much rather have that," she said.
Tromba said that according to Calhoun, school officials were trying to keep the children "comfortable and relaxed" by feeding them and letting them watch movies.
"They can use their cell phones. My kid's contacted me quite a few times," she said.
G. Odante Lamptey also lives on Culpeper Drive. His wife and daughter were evacuated from their home after just before 6 p.m. by a member of the SWAT unit.
He was glad to see his family again, but was anxious and tired of standing in the street.
"I want to drive me and my family out of here so I can at least go and use the bathroom," said Lamptey.
He had no choice but to remain standing outside of his home and miss his daughter's swim meet, he said.
The last students left Fred Lynn about 10 p.m. Schools were scheduled to open at regular times today.
Uriah A. Kiser can be reached at 703-878-8065. Keith Walker contributed to this report.
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Reader Reactions
There’s being cautious and there’s redicilous. Prince William Police were redicilous for taking it as far as they did. Heck lets be more careful and lock down the whole Woodbridge area! I’m still in shock that they shut down 3 major schools in the area when the house wasn’t even close to these schools! Why did it take sooo long for the Police to get in the house? 5 hours?? what the heck are they discussing, War and Peace?? I’ve lived in many cities across the nation and this was the most redicilous thing I’ve ever seen!!!
ok, so heres the thing. everyone who is complaining about not getting your kid till so late in the evening, roads closed, or how the schools entertained your child, just shut up!! what if your child had been released and somehow got shot or whatever the case may be, somehow got hurt you all would have been pissed. so pwc schools are damned if they do and damned if they dont, my son goes to marumsco hills and i am very pleased with the way they handled everything. we got two calles yesterday one at 2:00 and one at 5:30 last night. we walked to culpepper last night and sat for awhile it was quiet besides smelling and feeling the tear gas. guys just give the county a break, its not like this happens everyday, they did the best they could for the situation handed to them
Panic. Confusion. Lack of communication.—The whole thing was blown out of proportion. And the alleged killer is still out there.
Why can’t the county have a cell phone alert system like Arlington county does.
The author needs to check his facts. The evacuation times are at least an hour off.
THE POTOMAC NEWS SEEMS TO BE SUGAR COATING THESCHOOL LOCKDOWN STORY.
I TALKED TO SEVERAL PARENTS AND THEY ALL RELAYED THE MESSAGE THAT THEY RECEIVED NO INFORMATION FROM THEIR RESPECTED SCHOOLS.
IN FACT ONE FRIEND SAID I WAS THE FORST TO NOTIFY HIM AND HIS FIRST NOTIFICATION FROM THE SCHOOL CAME IN ,ON HIS AWNSERING MACHINE AT 7.30 LAST NIGHT ,ONLY TO INFORM HIM, THAT HIS CHILD COULD BE PICKED UP AT LYNN SCHOOL.
THE PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY SCHOOL BOARD NEEDS TO VISIT THIS SITUATION, TO BETTER COORDINATE CONTACTING PARENTS.
THE POST WAS MUCH MORE ACCURATE IN THEIR REPORTING,AS MANY PARENTS WERE JUSTIFIABLY UPSET,CHILDREN NEEDED FOOD WHO WERE DIABETIC,CONTACTS NOT MADE,CONFUSION AS TO HOW TO PICK UP YOU’RE CHILD.
NOW SAFETY IS THE FOREMOST PRIORITY, BUT A SYSTEM FAR BETTER THAN THE ONE IN PLACE NEEDS TO BE IMPLEMENTED.
SO IN CLOSING PLEASE RESEARCH THE STORY BETTER,DON’T COVER ONLY THE SIDE OF THE STORY THAT BODES WELL FOR THE COUNTY.
THE CHILDREN COULD HAVE BEEN SENT TO KILBY SCHOOL AND THIS WOULD HAVE AVOIDED SENDING BUSES FULL OF CHILDREN RIGHT PAST THE DANGER AREA.
THANK YOU
Okay that’s scary.
—Tromba said that according to Calhoun, school officials were trying to keep the children “comfortable and relaxed” by feeding them and letting them watch movies.—
However, that usually works for the little kids. It’s better than homework!
Glad they were all safe.
That was great preventitive measures taken by PWC Police and authorities. Keeping the children safe from a suspected murderer.
A minor inconvenience should be tolerated, in order to keep the children safe. There is no telling what the suspected murderer would have done, if he was able to elude capture by entering a school.
I have confidence PWC authorities will capture this murderer, before too long. Great work.
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