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Parents say Baton Rouge police took 20 minutes to respond to potential threat at daycare

1 year 9 months 3 weeks ago Friday, May 27 2022 May 27, 2022 May 27, 2022 10:45 PM May 27, 2022 in News
Source: WBRZ

BATON ROUGE - Days after the horrific school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, Baton Rouge parents are upset over police response to suspicious activity at their kids' daycare.

It took officers twenty minutes to show up to a learning center after calls were made about a man erratically trying to get into the building.

“Who knows what could have happened in twenty minutes?” said a concerned parent: a question other parents at Alfred G. Rayner Learning Center had to face after what happened Thursday.

“A man to my knowledge approached the doors and our locks worked at the school, so he wasn't allowed in. The staff didn't let him in. They immediately called the police and put the school on lockdown,” the parent recalled. 

But he kept trying. 

“It's my understanding he tried to get in a different way through other sets of doors, but he was unsuccessful in that as well,” she said. 

No one knows what the man wanted or why he was trying to get into the daycare, but parents do want to know why it took twenty minutes for officers to show up. 

“We base our calls relative to the seriousness of the call itself and the information that's been given to us relative to what may be going on in that area. So, they're based on codes: code ones, code twos and, code threes. Code three obviously is the most severe where we come blazing with lights and sirens. This here was relative to code one because we didn't have any information that alluded to us that anyone was in any immediate danger,” L’Jean McKneely explained. 

It was reported the man had left the school before police arrived, but parents still can't understand why it wasn't a code three. 

“If the school is scared enough to put themselves in the position of locking the children up in their classrooms that should be considered a priority for the police too, especially given the Texas shooting that just happened,” the parent said. 

The man ended up driving away after being denied entry, but parents are still left unsettled. 

“What does it take for it to be a priority three? Do we have to say we see a potential intruder with a gun, even though we don't know?” she asked. 

No one was injured during the incident, and police say they don't know who the man was. It's still unclear what he wanted in the first place. 

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