Classes resumed at Fort Worth's Sagamore Hill Elementary School Thursday after an overnight break-in and a subsequent search for the intruders by Fort Worth SWAT officers.
According to officials, someone entered the school at 701 South Hughes Avenue at about 2:45 a.m. Thursday after breaking one of the front windows.
Fort Worth ISD security personnel were alerted to the break-in and could see two men inside the school. One of the suspects covers the lower part of his face with a towel in one piece of surveillance video, the other does not. A second video shows them running down a hallway of the school.
Officers with K-9 dogs searched the school but couldn't locate the burglars. As dawn approached, and with the location of the intruders unknown, it was decided that SWAT officers would conduct a thorough search of the building to make sure it was safe for students and faculty.
"The building is very large. It has a lot of small spaces, crawl space, ceiling and basement areas, so it was felt that it was needed to have our SWAT team. They have special training, special tactics, special equipment," said Tracey Knight, with the Fort Worth Police Department.
Officials said SWAT found no one inside the school and, at about 9:20 a.m., turned control of the building over to the school district.
District officials said they do not yet know if anything is missing from the school, though they planned to audit inventory Thursday afternoon.
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While the search by SWAT was underway, students arriving for class Thursday morning had been directed to a nearby church before being bused to the Wilkerson Greines Athletic Center. Instruction was to be given at the athletic center until the elementary school was cleared by police.
“It’s a scary situation,” said David Frazier Sr. “You don’t think something like that could happen, but you never can underestimate what goes on people’s minds and stuff.”
With the building declared safe, about 50 students were bused back to the Sagamore Hill campus to resume class. Other students showed up after that with their parents, but some parents pulled their kids from school.
“I still feel that the school is not safe right now,” said Stephanie Rodriguez. “He (her son) won’t be back until Monday probably.”
FWISD said more than 700 students attend this school in grades K – 5.
Some parents said once administrators told them what was going on, they decided to take their children home instead of to the athletic center. The district said any student who went home with a parent and didn't return to school Thursday will not be counted absent, though they were still asked to report to their normal classroom.
The police activity and change in plans from the district didn’t bother parents though, as they said it was a good thing.
“It was good to see that everyone was reacting so swiftly and doing everything they needed to do to make sure everybody’s safe,” said Cindy Lopez, a neighbor.
NBC 5's Jeff Smith, Ellen Bryan and Chris Van Horne contributed to this report.
