Man Who Had Gun In Westfield School Parking Lot Gets Prison Time

WESTFIELD, NJ — A Delaware man who was found in the parking lot of Westfield's Tamaques Elementary School while in possession of a handgun, numerous rounds of ammunition, and a folding knife, was sentenced to five years in state prison on Friday.

Thomas J. Wilkie, 46, of Bear, DE, must serve a minimum of 42 months of that term before the possibility of parole, under terms set down by Union County Superior Court Judge William A. Daniel.

Around 3:55 p.m. on Thursday, June 13, the New Castle County Police Department in Delaware notified the Westfield Police Department that a man, later identified as Wilkie, was en route to Tamaques Elementary School and potentially armed. Prior reporting said family members of Wilkie's may have tipped off police.

When Westfield Police Department patrol officers and detectives responded to the school, they located Wilkie in the front seat.

Police said they found Wilkie holding a .45-caliber handgun loaded with hollow-point bullets. Two additional loaded clips of ammunition and a folding knife were recovered from Wilkie’s person, and 130 rounds of ammunition were located in the vehicle’s trunk, according to law enforcement.

Officers arrested Wilkie without incident. The school was temporarily placed on lockdown as a precautionary measure.

He pleaded guilty to weapons offenses in early January.

“The bravery and professionalism demonstrated by Officers Jeffrey Johnson and Michael Pollack of the Westfield Police Department was exemplary," said acting Union County Prosecutor Lyndsay V. Ruotolo. Their quick thinking and heroism deescalated a situation that easily could have turned tragic.”

She commended the Westfield Police Department under Chief Christopher Battiloro’s leadership, as well as assistant prosecutors Theresa Hilton and Nicole Siano.

Late last year, Prosecutor Ruotolo denied Wilkie’s request for a Graves waiver in the case. Such filings are made by defendants seeking to avoid imposition of the state’s mandatory minimum sentence for gun offenses.

During the sentencing hearing, reading from a handwritten five-page note, Wilkie expressed remorse for his actions, describing the incident as “unconscionable, frightening, and unacceptable.”

Wilkie thanked responding Westfield Police Department officers for their “professionalism, restraint, and mercy."

“The defendant went to school with a gun … and there were children present,” said Assistant Prosecutor Siano, adding that “the need [for deterence] is paramount.”

Judge Daniel said, “Thank God [it] was defused, but the public was exposed to the threat of serious harm.”

The incident was unrelated to the recent firing of a third grade teacher at the school for alleged comments he made to colleagues about his guns.