Fight led to lockdown at Richard Montgomery High

UPDATE:
5:00 p.m.

A fight outside Richard Montgomery High School in Rockville Friday set off a gun scare that had the campus locked down for about an hour Friday afternoon.

Police believe that two students traded punches outside the school during lunchtime, perhaps over a disputed item of property, said Rockville Police Major Robert Rappoport. After the fight was over, a rumor spread about a gun, he said. The school went into complete lockdown, with teachers locking the doors to their classrooms and staying inside them with their students. But police searched both inside and outside the school, and didn’t find a weapon, Rappoport said. By about 2:00 p.m., the lockdown was over.

The victim of the fight checked himself into a hospital for non-life-threatening injuries, and police were interviewing a “person of interest” Friday afternoon, Rappoport said.

--Michael Birnbaum and Dan Morse

Rockville Police Chief Terry Treschuk said Richard Montgomery High School in Rockville went into lockdown just before 1 p.m. Friday because of a "report of someone inside the school with a weapon."

Dana Tofig, a spokesman for Montgomery County Schools, said after a fight outside of school during lunchtime, there was a report of a weapon on campus and the school went into Code Red lockdown, the most restrictive there is.

However, the report of a weapon proved false and the lockdown ended about 2 p.m.