Police apprehend person with weapon at school following Mars basketball game
ADAMS TWP — An incident involving a weapon prompted players, coaches and others to barricade themselves in rooms in the lower level of Mars Area High School following the boys basketball game between Mars and South Fayette Friday evening.
A “few” were detained by police and no one was injured, Adams Township police said of the incident, which was first reported around 9:30 p.m.
Police said later that the scene was secure. It was a “heightened incident brought under control quickly,” police said.
In a statement posted to the district’s website late Friday, superintendent Mark Gross wrote that the incident happened in the parking lot.
“Adams Township Police and Mars Area School District’s School Police Officers responded immediately to this incident and apprehended the individual with the weapon. Please note that the individual with the weapon was not a Mars Area student. Adams Township Police is continuing to investigate.
“We would like to thank our local police officers for their quick and diligent response. At this time, everyone at the scene of the incident is safe and unharmed and the location is secure,” he said.
Gross said additional details will follow as the investigation continues.
The basketball players from both teams were already in the locker rooms, but anyone in the hallway downstairs was urged to “take cover” as an “active shooter” might be upstairs, said Butler Eagle sports reporter Brendan Howe, who was at the scene.
Those in the hallway ran into an athletic training room, where they barricaded the door with a filing cabinet.
They were allowed out of the rooms by Mars Area staff a short time afterward.
Before opening the door, one person inside the athletic training room urged the person on the opposite side of the door to “prove it” was safe before opening the door.
“There was a person with a gun outside the school and some altercation. Very scary and traumatizing for those involved,” Katie Higgins said in the Mars PA Community Forum on Facebook.
The incident followed a triple-overtime win by South Fayette. Rob Carmody, Mars boys basketball coach, who was inside the locker room with his team, said he encouraged the students to remain calm.
“We had talked to our kids about poise tonight. At the start of the game there were times when we lost our poise and it cost us an opportunity to win, but in life — this is where sports becomes so important because you get to teach young people how to handle things,” Carmody said. “Poise (is) how to handle things at the end of the game, the clock, but this is how you handle yourself, you stay calm.”
He asked students to avoid spreading misinformation on their cellphones.
“We’re going to stay in this room. We’re safe in here. Don’t go crazy, thinking someone said this or someone said that... Stay calm, stay poised,” he said.
Eagle staff writers Molly Miller and Brendan Howe contributed to this report.
