Police scour neighborhood looking for gunman Tuesday

BY CHUCK VANDENBERG

PCC EDITOR

FORT MADISON - Fort Madison police spent about an hour Tuesday morning looking for an unidentified man with a gun in the central part of the city.

A LeeComm dispatcher sent police to the 2300 block of Avenue L, where a call had come in about a man with light brown, longer hair walking on Avenue L toward Pizza Hut carrying a pistol with a long barrel.

Police Chief Tim Sittig said at different times one to three officers including the Fort Madison School Resource Officer were in the neighborhood and surrounding areas looking for the man.

"We were on the scene for about an hour looking for him. If he was out there and intended to do harm, we wanted to get to him before that could happen," Sittig said.

The incident prompted Fort Madison Community School District to place Richardson Elementary School on a lockdown during the search. Sittig said police were not at the school, but were out looking for the suspect after the building was secure. He said it doesn't appear there was any threat directed at the school.

He said no other active reports have come in, and officers were unable to locate or identify the subject.

"We cruised the area and did stop-and-contact with people in the vicinity, and we couldn't ascertain who he was or where he disappeared to," Sittig said. "Our reports don't indicate if the suspect was young or old."