Baytown DARE officer mistakenly draws gun on students during hostage drill

Clark Elementary was the scene of a nearly tragic misunderstanding Wednesday when a DARE officer mistook an active-shooter drill to be real. Clark Elementary was the scene of a nearly tragic misunderstanding Wednesday when a DARE officer mistook an active-shooter drill to be real. Photo: Google Photo: Google Image 1 of / 21 Caption Close Baytown DARE officer mistakenly draws gun on students during hostage drill 1 / 21 Back to Gallery

A Baytown DARE officer briefly pointed his gun at two high school theater students who were acting as a gunman and hostage during an emergency drill on the Clark Elementary campus Wednesday, according to officials with Goose Creek Consolidated ISD.

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District spokeswoman Beth Dombrowa said the officer lowered his weapon "almost immediately" when he realized it was a drill.

Dombrowa said the officer was apparently unaware there was a drill taking place. She said the officer was on campus that day to teach a class during the scheduled emergency drill. He's normally off duty on Wednesdays, but he went to campus that day to make up for the school closure on Columbus Day, she said.

The officer wasn't aware of the drill when he heard on the intercom that the campus was being placed on lockdown, she said. He responded like any other officer would, she said.

"He's a police officer," she said. "He did what he was supposed to do."

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Dombrowa said the hostage-taking student was carrying a blue wooden handgun, but the officer couldn't see the fake gun at the time, she said.

No one was harmed during the seconds-long ordeal, she said.

Dombrowa added that different emergency drills were held at other Goose Creek campuses on Wednesday. At Clark Elementary, the male and female high school students acted out the hostage scenario in the hallway as elementary students locked themselves in their rooms, she said.

She said the district got permission from student actors' parents before the drill. The district also posted notices of the drill on its website, ran the notice in the Baytown Sun and sent letters home to parents, she said.

She said this was at least the second year the district has hosted the emergency drills, and there may be additional steps taken in the future to prevent any confusion.

"I suspect there will be some changes that come out of this," she said, later adding, "We learn something every time we do a drill, and that's the purpose for doing them."

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Julian Gill is a digital reporter in Houston. Read him on our breaking news site, Chron.com, and on our subscriber site, houstonchronicle.com. | julian.gill@chron.com