Newburgh School Temporarily Closed After Four Teens Shot

All campuses of the Newburgh Free Academy were closed Thursday and Friday after four students were shot after school on Wednesday afternoon. 

This is the second time a Hudson Valley school is closed due to gun violence this week. The first occurred on Monday when shots were reported at Poughkeepsie High School near the faculty parking lot. There were no injuries as a result of the shots fired on Monday. According to Yahoo News, a thirteen-year-old boy was found with an unloaded semi-automatic handgun. He has been charged with criminal possession of a weapon and was transported to a juvenile facility. 

Poughkeepsie High School was closed on Tuesday and Wednesday following the shooting as school officials finalized new safety measures regarding violence. 

After Newburgh Free Academy students were released from school on Wednesday afternoon, a dispute started that spanned five blocks on William Street. There were dozens of people involved in the incident and most began running away from the scene after a total of 10 gunshots were fired. 

Police said that three teens were shot in the legs and a fourth in the stomach, all between the ages of 16 to 18 and residents of Newburgh. All of the victims are in stable condition. 

“When you have a crime scene that spans a quarter of a mile, and you have a bunch of 16-and 17-year-olds that are just shooting at each other, running up and down the street, it calls for some serious action from the city of Newburgh and law enforcement, and I’m sure that some action is going to be taken,” Orange County District Attorney David Hoovler told the Times Herald-Record.

The Newburgh Free Academy told students to stay home on Thursday and Friday as the police investigate a shooting. In a message from the school posted on Wednesday night, district leaders said the closure was done out of an “abundance of caution in response to an incident that occurred in the community.” According to the Newburgh Free Academy school website, students will return to normally scheduled classes on Monday morning. 

“The recent acts of violence in the community has prompted the immediate need to pause and once again, reflect on the needs of our student body, faculty and staff in relation to the effectiveness of current procedures and routines to provide a safe and secure learning environment,” Acting Superintendent Ed Forgit said. “As families, a district, and as individual school buildings, we all have work to do.”

As schools in the Hudson Valley work to increase security and decrease gun violence in the area, they ask the community and student body for help. If anyone has information about the incident that occurred in Newburg on Wednesday afternoon, the police are asking that they contact the City of Newburgh Police Department at (845) 561-3131.

Newburgh school Temporarily Closed After Four Teens Shot. Source: esu105, 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0).