Editor’s Note: This story by John Lippman first appeared in the Valley News on March 24.
Two residents are being hailed for their decisive and calm interdiction with a teen they saw dressed in camouflage and carrying a firearm while walking toward Rivendell Academy in Orford, New Hampshire, on Tuesday.
John Dunham, a volunteer firefighter, and excavator Mike Wright, who is chairperson of the road commission, were driving north on Route 10 a little before noon on Tuesday when they spotted the teen walking south and then cross a field in the direction of the school. They followed him by turning onto School Drive, and Dunham got out of the vehicle to approach the teen while Wright called police, Dunham and Wright told the Valley News.
Dunham’s and Wright’s actions, as well as those of Rivendell School Superintendent Barrett Williams, who emerged from the school building to approach the juvenile, are being praised by town officials for helping to avert a potential tragedy.
“I applaud and wholeheartedly respect the community members and staff that placed themselves in harm’s way not realizing fully what jeopardy they may or may not have been in,” Orford Police Chief Jason Bachus said. “And also a huge shout-out to the many community members that called 911.”
Bachus called the response by residents “the epitome of, ‘See something, say something.’ ”
Orford police issued a news release saying formal charges of criminal threatening are pending against a 16-year-old after he was arrested walking toward Rivendell Academy armed with a pellet rifle and a pellet pistol on Tuesday. He was later released.
The school serves students from several Upper Valley communities in Vermont and New Hampshire.
The incident triggered a massive police response with seven area departments swarming to the scene and a 15- to 20-minute lockdown of the school shortly after noon.
The police took the juvenile into custody, seized both of his weapons and said there was “no indicated or directed threat to the school known.”
Orford Selectboard Chairman John Adams said he knows both Dunham and Wright and he isn’t at all surprised at their actions.
“Those two are very public-service, civic-minded type of people,” Adams said Wednesday. “I’m sure it was second nature to them, which in this modern world is pretty unusual.”
Wright, in an interview with the Valley News, said he and Dunham were driving north on Route 10 shortly before noon on Tuesday when they saw a person dressed in camouflage, a ski mask and sunglasses and carrying a long rifle briskly walking south on the sidewalk near Patterson’s Grocery & Deli.
Wright, who was at the wheel, said they saw the individual cross over into the field and appear to head toward Rivendell Academy. Wright steered his truck the wrong way onto the one-way School Lane and parked; Dunham got out of the vehicle to approach the juvenile while Wright provided a “play-by-play” description of what he was observing.
At the same time, Williams emerged from the school building.
Both Dunham, who works as a patrol officer with Dartmouth College Department of Safety and Security and has professional training in conflict de-escalation, and Williams together talked with the juvenile and persuaded him to lay down the rifle, which turned out to be a pellet gun, though neither knew that at the time.
In addition, the juvenile also revealed he was carrying a pellet handgun.
Dunham said both he and Williams had one goal: to prevent the student from getting near the school building.
“I just kept asking him not to go near the school and kind of distract him,” Dunham said Wednesday, declining to describe what else they discussed because it involves a juvenile and the matter is still under investigation by authorities. “I was just focused on him not going to the school with a firearm, focused on him not hurting anybody else.”
A Vermont resident who had observed the juvenile walking across the Fairlee-Orford bridge had called state police, according to Wright.
Authorities from the Vermont towns of Bradford and Thetford; the New Hampshire towns of Lyme and Piermont; the Grafton County Sheriff’s Department; and the New Hampshire State Police responded to the scene Tuesday, according to the news release.
Later Tuesday evening, the 16-year-old, whom police did not identify because he is a juvenile, posted a photo of himself under the words “just got home from jail” on the social media app Snapchat, according to a screenshot of the post provided to the Valley News.
Williams said there was a “police presence on campus” on Wednesday, and teachers and extra staff were on hand to help students who may have felt traumatized.
Despite the risks of not knowing what kind of gun the juvenile was carrying or his state of mind, both Dunham and Wright brushed off any suggestion that their intervention deserved special praise.
“Mike and I both have kids at the school. We were doing what anyone else would,” Dunham said.
“This is not a hero thing. We’re not heroes,” Wright said. “The only thing we cared about is he didn’t make it to the school.”
