Arrest made in robbery that triggered school lockdown
Bill Powell | August 14, 2012
WASHINGTON — Police have made an arrest in a Monday morning bank robbery in Daviess County that triggered a Pike County School Corp. lockdown.
The Crane Federal Credit Union Bank in Washington was robbed at 9:10 a.m. by a suspect later identified as Dustin R. Green of Vincennes, 23, according to the Washington Police Department.
The suspect, wearing a black sweatshirt and dark sunglasses, had given a note to a teller demanding money. After receiving an undisclosed amount of cash, he fled on foot and disappeared.
Considering that access roads from the crime scene feed into Pike County and that those highways could lead a crime suspect near Petersburg Elementary or Otwell Elementary, a decision was made, as a preventative measure, to place those buildings on a passive lockdown, according to Pike County School Superintendent Suzanne Blake. A passive, or soft, lockdown means students’ movements to classes and lunch inside buildings are not restricted.
The passive lockdown kept young students in at recess, subjected visitors to extra screening and kept an extra vigil on the parking lots and school grounds, according to the superintendent.
It was a little rainy Monday, Blake said, so missing outdoor recess on the second day of school even had its benefits.
The lockdown later was expanded to all the corporation’s schools, again as a preventative measure. Students went home as scheduled at the end of the day.
“We felt like it was worth it to be safe,” Blake said.
According to police, Green and the 2000 Pontiac Grand Am he was traveling in were located in Worthington, in Greene County, and a Worthington Police Department officer detained Green there until Washington police could speak with him. Washington police arrested Green on a felony robbery charge and transported him back to Daviess County.
The sheriff’s departments of Daviess, Greene, Knox, Martin and Pike counties, the FBI, Indiana State Police and the Jasonville, Linton, Loogootee and Vincennes police departments assisted.
Contact Bill Powell at bpowell@dcherald.com.
