Armed 'Despondent' Individual Prompts Groves HS Lockdown

Story updated at 7:07 p.m.

BEVERLY HILLS, MI – Wylie Groves High School in was locked down for about an hour Monday morning in what Birmingham Public Schools Superintendent Dan Nerad called in a news conference “a very serious situation.”

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School officials were notified by Birmingham polcie about 10:45 a.m. that a “despondent” individual who was possibly armed with a gun had been seen on the school’s baseball field, according to an email to the school district sent to parents and others.

The school at 20500 West 13 Mile Road was immediately placed on lockdown, and students and staff who were outside the school were ordered inside.

A student told the Detroit Free Press it may have been a former student who came to the high school to commit suicide, but neither police officials nor Nerad would speculate on that.

The individual reportedly cooperated with police and was taken from school grounds in an ambulance. Public Safety Director Chris Yanosy confirmed to The Detroit News that the individual was armed, but cited medical privacy laws and declined additional comment.

Anxiety hung in the air when the lockdown was lifted and students and teachers returned the classrooms.

"The teachers in the class just kinda stood still," one student told the Free Press. "They just kinda looked at each other."