Shots fired outside Huntington Station strip mall trigger school lockdowns
Officers responded to reports of shots fired around 10:30 a.m. following a fight involving a group of young men outside a strip mall along New York Avenue in Huntington Station.
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A group dispute that escalated into gunfire in a parking lot on New York Avenue triggered lockouts and lockdowns across multiple Suffolk County school districts for nearly two hours Tuesday morning, according to police and district officials.
Officers responded to reports of shots fired around 10:30 a.m. following a fight involving a group of young men outside a strip mall along New York Avenue in Huntington Station.
"The kids was fighting each other and then they started shooting," said a local deli worker who witnessed the brawl, describing the group as teenagers.
A nearby laundromat owner returned to find the entire strip mall cordoned off with police tape and a heavy police presence securing the area.
At the same time, officers responded to a separate police call near Old Field and Greenlawn roads, just a couple of miles away.
The simultaneous investigations prompted the Harborfields Central School District to initiate a lockout for nearly two hours as a precaution. Students at Jack Abrams STEM Magnet Intermediate School told News 12 they were also under lockdown. Other schools within the Huntington Union Free School District were also placed under lockout or lockdown protocols, according to a letter sent to News 12 by a parent.
"Especially if it's like a lockdown and you don't know if it's a lockdown drill or what's been confirmed or not, it just makes it all the more scary," said Huntington resident Miladys Vila. "I can't even imagine how the parents might feel, knowing that there was nothing that they could really do."
Suffolk County police confirmed that no injuries were reported in connection with the dispute. Investigators believe the individuals involved knew each other.
