Bennington High School student arrested, gun confiscated

OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) - The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office said Thursday that a Bennington High School student had been booked into the juvenile center to face charges of terroristic threats.

DCSO’s news release stated that that they were notified via the Safe2Help tip line the “student had brought a handgun to a school parking lot and was pointing it at students” on Tuesday.

The tip sparked a DCSO investigation. According to the release, deputies interviewed several students and conducted searches. The gun was found at the student’s home and confiscated by DCSO.

“At the time of the arrest there was no threat to the public and no weapons were located on the student, in his vehicle, or at the school,” the release states.

The note sent to parents from the high school principal Gregory Lamberty said that “the incident was quickly resolved,” thanking the students who “immediately reported the incident and the quick response of law enforcement.” Several parents reached out to 6 News to express their concern that they weren’t notified of the incident sooner.

But according to Superintendent Dr. Terry Haack, it wasn’t actually immediately reported, explaining part of the delay in notification.

“The Safe2Help came to us Wednesday. The incident we believe did occur on Tuesday,” said Haack.

Once the tip came in, the school resource officer involved the Douglas County Sheriff’s Department.

Bennington Police Chief Andrew Hilscher told 6 News in an email response on Thursday morning that he had not been made aware of the incident at the high school.

“I was informed this morning by a social media post,” he said, noting that the post contained a screenshot of the email the Bennington School District sent to parents on Wednesday night.

Hilscher also noted that “the Bennington school resource officer is a deputy of the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office and not an officer of Bennington.”

Notifying the Bennington Police Department was not the responsibility of the school district, according to Haack.

“We put trust in the school resource officer. We put trust into law enforcement. Once we hand it over to law enforcement, it’s up to them in terms of what and who they want to get involved,” he said.

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TIPS: The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office encourages anyone with information about threats to schools to call 911 or report it through Safe2HelpNE.org or the Safe2Help app. Tipsters can remain anonymous.

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