Mattituck campus cleared after report of possible gun shots
A Mattituck girls soccer game was suspended Tuesday evening following a report of possible gun shots in the neighboring area, school and police officials have confirmed.
The athletic fields at the high school were evacuated shortly after 5:30 p.m. and students were brought into the building until police deemed the area safe again, administrators said.
Police chief Martin Flatley said officers were “unable to verify where [the shots] came from or if they were even gun shots.”
“We asked Mattituck High School to bring their students in from the athletic fields to the school until we could identify where the shots were coming from,” he said. “They complied and, after conducting a door-to-door check of the neighborhood, students were allowed to leave the high school properties and return to their homes.”
Superintendent Anne Smith said the lockdown lasted about 30 minutes before administrators decided to suspend the game and close the campus.
“We made sure all the kids were picked up and no one walked home,” she said.
Athletic director Gregg Wormuth, who said he did hear what he “thought could have been gunshots,” said he did not believe anyone at the school was in imminent danger.
“We just took precautionary measures,” he said.
Mr. Wormuth credited athletic trainer Colleen McGowan with helping to safely usher players to the gym.
Parent Kim Fabb said she received a phone call from her worried 12-year-old daughter, who was a spectator at the game and told her “shots were fired but she was OK.”
“Mrs. Zuhoski [a math teacher] took some of the younger kids who were very upset to her room,” Ms. Fabb said, adding that she drove to the school and waited with another parent until the students were released.
Mattituck’s girls soccer team was playing Pierson/Bridgehampton in a “Coaches vs. Cancer” fundraiser game when the incident occurred. The game was stopped with 3:49 left in the first half and Mattituck leading, 5-0. Mr. Wormuth said he did not yet know if the game would be continued at a later date.
The school will be opened and operating under a normal schedule Wednesday, Dr. Smith said.
