Sean C. Morgan
A mental patient who walked away from voluntary treatment in Salem caused the Jim Riggs Community Center to close and Sweet Home High School to enter lockdown Monday, April 1.
At about 11:15 a.m., the Sweet Home Police Department received a call from an employee of the Linn-Benton Community College Sweet Home Center. The caller reported that a doctor located in Salem had informed LBCC of a mental patient who had made threats against the Sweet Home Center within the past three months and then had “escaped” Monday morning.
When the first officer arrived at the LBCC campus, he was advised that report was in error and that the phone call had actually been in regard to the Sweet Home Community Center, said Police Chief Bob Burford. LBCC had already passed this information on to the Jim Riggs Community Center, where staff decided to close for the day. The Community Center houses the Boys and Girls Club and Senior Center.
“At about the same time, we received a call from the high school telling us they had gone into lockdown,” Burford said. This was apparently in response to information received by LBCC, which is attached to the high school.
High school staff lifted the lockdown once Sweet Home police explained the facts as they were known, Burford said.
“We started to backtrack the information,” Burford said. Under normal circumstances, it would have originated with Marion County law enforcement and been vetted prior to any alert.
Police learned that a Salem residential in-patient facility had been treating a 23-year-old male, who was committed voluntarily, Burford said. The New Era does not identify mental patients unless they pose a threat to the community or is a criminal suspect. Within the past three months, he had mentioned to a counselor that if he were ever to do anything, he would probably go to the Sweet Home Community Center to do so.
Monday morning, he left the facility without permission, Burford said. The treating physician notified Salem police for assistance in locating the man but did not pass on any information regarding his past comments regarding Sweet Home.
Instead the doctor chose to call directly to what he believed was the correct business, LBCC, Burford said.
The doctor told police the man had no known means of transportation away from the Salem area and had, to his knowledge, no Sweet Home connection at all, Burford said.
The male was located in the Salem area and returned to the treatment facility late Monday afternoon.
Sweet Home police found that the male has no known criminal record.