Incident at Doane Stuart puts school on alert

PHOTOGRAPHER: Michael Goot

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A Hudson man was arrested Monday for allegedly carrying a gun into Doane Stuart School.

The incident happened at about 11:45 a.m., when a man approached a locked school entrance and was buzzed into the building. The man later showed a staff member that he had a weapon, according to interim Head of School Lisa Brown.

“We enacted our lockdown protocol immediately. He left pretty quickly,” she said.

During a lockdown, everybody is instructed to get to the nearest classroom, according to Brown.

“They get down and they stay away from any doors and windows and wait for the all-clear,” she said.

No one was injured and about an hour later the lockdown was lifted at the private coeducational school on Washington Avenue in Rensselaer, which has about 300 students from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade.

School officials called the Rensselaer Police Department and officers responded in a couple of minutes, according to Brown.

They told investigators that the man, 44-year-old Pierre R. Jeune, had a small car accident about a week ago on school property and told a school official he was owed money by the other party in the accident. He also said he felt threatened and showed the school official he had a gun, according to police.

Police contacted Jeune on his cellphone and asked him to return to the school. He was arrested without incident with the assistance of state police and the North Greenbush and East Greenbush police departments.

Jeune was charged with fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon, a Class A misdemeanor. Jeune does have a permit for the weapon but it is illegal to carry it on school property. He was arraigned in Rensselaer City Court and released to his attorney and is to appear back in court on March 13.

Police did not have any further details.

Brown said the school has practiced lockdown drills a number of times. “All of our faculty, staff and students knew exactly what to do. They remained calm and they did a phenomenal job,” she said.

This is the second incident in a week in which a school has gone into lockdown over a report of a gun. Last week, a Troy school was locked down for two hours after police received a report of two students with weapons. The guns ended up being a pellet pistol and a paintball rifle.

Arrested in that case were 16-year-old Jordan Reid and 19-year-old Terrance Huneau, both of 397 Ninth St., who were charged with third-degree criminal trespass and unlawful possession of a weapon on school grounds.