A manhunt for an escaped patient from St. Vincent’s Behavioral Health Medical Center on Long Lots Road around 2:45 p.m. yesterday caused roughly 20-minute delays for middle school dismissals in the at-risk areas as students and citizens were instructed to stay indoors. The absconded individual was located and detained around an hour later.
The patient’s history of behavioral health issues and domestic violence arrests prompted the Westport Police Department (WPD) to send out a Nixle alert and inform schools in potentially threatened areas, such as Long Lots. As the police set up perimeters, deployed drone teams and worked alongside probation tracking devices, the Westport School System initiated protocols.
”[We] worked with our Transportation Coordinator to prevent our buses from releasing students in the neighborhood identified by the police,” Superintendent Thomas Scarice said. “Each School Security Officer was alerted and posted at their schools to ensure safety.”
Superintendent Thomas Scarice sent out a statement informing Westport school’s families and staff, highlighting only the transportation delays and the police’s involvement. By the time the statement was emailed out, the patient had been detained by Compo Road South, roughly at 3:35 p.m.
“The communication between our police department and school district is exemplary,” Scarice said. “This is yet another example of how effectively the system of collaboration works.”
However, Westport citizens criticized aspects of the police’s response. In the comments of the WPD’s released statement on Facebook, many questioned the lack of “description of the individual included in the alert,” the “lapse of time” for an official statement and even requesting the system to “make improvements on communication and transparency.”
The escaped person was returned back to St. Vincent’s “without issue,” according to a released statement. The WPD noted that they will continue to investigate the incident. St. Vincent declined to comment when contacted.
