Alert causes five-school ‘lockout’

No school welcomes the opportunity to put its emergency procedures to a real-life test, but the schools in north Baldwin executed their lockout plans to perfection last week while a police chase barreled through the area.

The scary scenario began to take shape at around noon on Feb. 17, when Nassau County police pursued five young men, starting in Lakeview. According to detectives, the suspects, Anthony Joseph, 18, John Meekins, 27, Jordan Nealy, 16, Marshall Thomas, 16, and Andre Walker, 22, were seen emerging from a wooded area across from a residence on Pinelake Drive after three gunshots were heard. The suspects got into an older model Lincoln Town Car, police said, and fled the scene.

Police immediately broadcast a notification that the vehicle was traveling eastbound on the Southern State Parkway near exit 17. Officers trailed the car for several miles until the driver lost control and stopped near exit 20, Baldwin Road-Grand Avenue. The suspects then attempted to flee the scene on foot.

With numerous patrol cars and a helicopter assisting in a chase of the potentially armed men, police informed area schools of the activity so they could take protective measures.

“When a pursuit is occurring in the proximity of a school, we advise the school districts,” said officer Eloise Abdullah of the NCPD’s Public Information Office. “Once we advise them of the situation, it’s up to them to decide what to do. The pursuit of the Lakeview suspects was approaching that area, so we called them.”

The alert actually began with a call to Uniondale’s South Street School, said Russ Randazzo, the Baldwin School District’s director of facilities, but word reached Baldwin just moments later. “We received a call around 12:45 p.m. from the Nassau County Police Department advising us that there was a pursuit in the area of the Uniondale School,” Randazzo recounted. “I went into the superintendent’s office, and we decided to lock out our schools as well. We didn’t know exactly what type of action precipitated the lockout — we only knew that they were chasing someone, but we didn’t have any specifics.”