Monroe Man Charged for Allegedly Threatening Security Guard at Sandy Hook School

(Editor’s note: We first published this story earlier in the week, but here it is again in case you missed it)

A Monroe man was arrested after police say he threatened a security guard assigned to the Sandy Hook Elementary school in Monroe.

According to police, the arrest stems from an incident reported on Feb. 13 around 8:51 p.m. when the security guard, assigned to an evening youth basketball game organized by the Monroe Parks and Recreation observed a youth bouncing a basketball off the hallway wall and asked him to stop.

A group of adults who had accompanied the youth engaged the guard in a verbal confrontation and one individual allegedly threatened the guard, police said.

The individual, later recognized as Thomas Coppola, 48 allegedly told the guard he did not know who he was dealing with and that he was “dead”.

After learning of the warrant for his arrest, Coppola surrendered himself to police on May 4. He was charged with breach of peace and threatening.

He was released on a written promise to appear and was given a court date of May 13.

Monroe Police said that the incident occurred in the evening and the Newtown students and staff of Sandy Hook Elementary School were not present or impacted by this incident.