Bomb Threats
Following two bomb threats at GHS, police identified two people who were believed to be responsible. In both cases, the threats were written on the walls inside a boys’ bathroom and were reported by students using the bathroom. The handwriting and wording was different in both instances so police did not believe it was the same student each time.
There are security cameras outside the bathrooms and police were able to identify the students who entered the bathroom prior to the bomb threats and identify two students believed to have written the threats. Police met with the first student and did not believe he posed a future threat.
School Resource Officer Wayne Drown, working with the school administration, was able to identify and charge a 17-year-old male for his involvement in these incidents. Police Chief Dan Jones takes these cases “very seriously.”
In the first instance, the school was locked down and bomb sniffing dogs were brought in. In the second instance, the school was evacuated during the search. There was no early release for students, something that can be a motivation for students making bomb threats.
Gorham High School has been holding assemblies with students in each grade to debrief them and assure them that police and school administration are doing everything they can to ensure their safety.
Report of Man in Ghillie Suit
On February 27, a caller told Dispatch that the previous night he had seen a man through the window of his apartment who was wearing a ghillie suit, clothing usually used for camouflage when hunting. He said the man had a laser pointer on his gun outside the window of his apartment on South St. The caller said he saw the man in the ghillie suit again the next morning and called the police. He fled his apartment and was waiting in the street.
While officers were suspicious of his statement, they chose to err on the side of caution as the man’s story seemed credible. Police set up a perimeter, shutting down a portion of South St., locking down the schools in the area and sending an officer with a loaded gun to the roof of the library. The caller was taken to the Police Department and interviewed at length by a detective but he did not budge from his story and swore it was true.
After searching the caller’s apartment and the rest of that building, not finding any footprints in the snow, and not getting any other calls reporting a man in a ghillie suit, police determined there did not appear to be any threat to the safety of the public. The search was suspended.
Drive-By Shootings
On March 15, officers in York County responded to two calls of shots being fired into two homes in Hollis. On March 17, two men were arrested for those incidents.
Gorham Police received two calls on March 16 and 17 about shots being fired into two homes in North Gorham in the area of Rt. 237. No one was injured in any of these shootings.
Gorham PD is continuing their investigation and expects to file charges against the same two men. One of the men arrested in York County is the same man who called 911 to report having seen a man in a ghillie suit on February 27.