Officials with the Council Bluffs Police Department report that at around 1:21-p.m. today (Wednesday), the Pottawattamie County 9‐1‐1 Center received a phone call from an unknown male who indicated that he was armed and inside the Lewis Central High School. The caller made threats of shooting people inside the building and that he was also going to set off explosives.

Numerous law enforcement officers responded to the school and conducted a thorough search of the building; no evidence of an armed subject or explosives were found. Both the Lewis Central High School and Middle School had an “early out” today, so very few students were inside the building at the time of the incident.

However, many faculty and other staff members were inside the school at the time. They were all secured in a safe location while officers searched the building. Nearby schools, Titan Hill Intermediate and Iowa School for the Deaf, were placed into “Lockout” status. Once the situation was deemed safe, they were returned to normal operations. As a precaution, officers were present at Titan Hill during the student’s dismissal, which had been delayed by several minutes.

Officers were in the area, investigating the situation, for approximately 90 minutes.
No injuries or property damage were reported during this incident. Council Bluffs Police Department detectives are investigating the source of the threatening phone call. Once identified, the caller could face numerous criminal charges, including making terroristic threats.