Brewer posts more police at schools after theft of guns

BANGOR – When students at Brewer High School noticed that extra police officers were hanging around their school this week, rumors began to fly about why – and some parents became concerned.

The officers, some in uniform and others not, were posted at all five city schools as a precautionary measure after Monday’s theft of guns from a Wilson Street store, Police Chief Perry Antone said Thursday.

“The decision [to increase security] wasn’t based on any threat,” Antone stressed at a news conference.

The guns were taken from Maine Military Supply at 735 Wilson St. around 2 a.m. Monday by two males who loaded backpacks and drove away with the weapons in a vehicle described as a white Jeep Cherokee.

The vehicle and the suspects were caught on video surveillance cameras, but police Thursday still were asking the public for assistance in finding and identifying them, Antone said.

Because the theft of weapons occurred in the city and with the recent shooting deaths at Virginia Tech, police decided to be extra-cautious, he said.

“We feel the most important thing for us to do was establish that the school was safe,” Antone said.

The extra patrols began Monday and will continue for an undetermined period, Superintendent Daniel Lee said.

A number of parents called the high school and the school superintendent, worried that the increased presence might be based on a specific threat, Lee said. It was not.

A Thursday morning e-mail was sent to teachers and staff informing them of the reason behind the increased police presence, and school officials sent a letter home to parents Thursday afternoon.

Even though the Virginia Tech shooting deaths occurred far from Maine, some students took the news hard, high school Principal Becky Bubar said.

School leaders worked with police and decided that it’s better to be overly protective and ensure that students are safe, she said.

“That’s the key,” Bubar said.