Man arrested in connection with Cape Coral schools’ lockdown appeared before a judge on drug charge

Reporter: Annalise Iraola Writer: Carolina Guzman
Published: Updated:
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Kevin Christensen Credit: The Lee County Sheriff’s Office

Kevin Christensen was arrested in connection with the investigation that forced lockdowns at Cape Coral High School and several others.

On Wednesday, the Cape Coral Police Department said that a student reported that a man dressed in camo made a bomb threat against the school.

The 49-year-old made his first court appearance on a possession of paraphernalia charge Thursday morning. Lee County Judge Devin George found nothing to support the student’s allegation that prompted six Cape Coral schools and nearby businesses into lockdown.

“We found a suspect, we got him in custody. And then, from there, the school was marked safe,” said Mercedes Phillips, a spokesperson for Cape Coral police said.

Police explained why the suspect has no charges related to Wednesday’s bomb threat.

For felonies, we have to meet certain criteria to be able to make an arrest for what we were looking at now, we didn’t necessarily meet that criteria,” said Phillips. “So then we were looking at kind of like a downgraded misdemeanor charge, that charge would potentially be something along the lines of disturbing a school function.”

WINK News spoke with a Cape Coral High School freshman who experienced the lockdown firsthand.

“I was freaked out at first because everybody said it was a lockdown. So we all went to the corner,” said Titus Twiford, a freshman at Cape Coral High School.

“I saw over 50 cops, like, go down this way. And it freaked me out. Because I didn’t know what was going on. We didn’t. The kids in the school didn’t have much information,” said Twiford. “We were just scared.”

Christensen has been appointed a Public Defender and is expected back in court in March.

No injuries were reported in the incident.

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