‘Distraught’ woman with a gun taken into protective custody after giving school a scare

A 39-year-old woman with a gun put an elementary school in the Valley on alert Thursday.

About 11:44 a.m., Juneau police were called to the Riverbend Apartments after receiving a report of the woman who was said to be distraught and had a firearm on her, according to a news release.

Police notified Riverbend Elementary School of the incident, but that there was not an immediate threat to the school, Juneau schools spokeswoman Kristin Bartlett said.

“The information that they gave us indicated that we shouldn’t let kids go out on the playground and we should keep them inside the school building,” Bartlett said. “But that it wasn’t an imminently dangerous situation to the staff or the students.”

The school went into stay-put mode.

“This is a tool that schools have that they lock the outside doors of the school and continue with the classes, but the students will go about their normal instructional day,” Bartlett said. “They won’t go out to recess, and if there are scheduled activities outside of the school they’ll wait until the incident is over.”

Police secured the area and made contact with the woman by phone. Shortly after noon, the woman came out of the apartments, and police took her into protective custody.

The school was notified and reopened to the public.

Juneau police spokesman Lt. David Campbell says the weapon was a pistol and reportedly loaded. Other details were not immediately available.

Police did not release the woman’s name and no charges were immediately available.

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