Stone County Schools go into Lockdown

This afternoon, two Stone County schools went into lockdown as police searched for a suspect nearby.
Around 12:30, school officials received an alert that police were actively searching for a man near the area where Stone High and Stone Middle School are located.
Stone County School Superintendent Inita Owen tells News 25 that both schools were placed on lockdown as a safety precaution.
School officials reached out to parents, updating them on the situation at the beginning and at the end of the lockdown after Wiggins Police Department successfully apprehended the suspect. Wiggins Deputy Chief Jeff Thomas said, “There was an altercation involving a firearm and shots were fired. Upon officer’s arrival, one of the suspects was still on the scene and he was taken into custody. The other suspect, he left the scene running on foot, later approximately an hour and a half, two hours later, he was apprehended. He was running towards the area of the middle school and high school. That’s the reason the schools were placed on lockdown.”
Both Stone High and Stone Middle School resumed normal operations around 2 p.m.