Windham Junior High and High School were placed in a brief lockdown Dec. 16 after Windham police were alerted to a physical altercation in a home across the street.
Police who were already at the school responded to a home on Bauer Avenue, arriving there seconds after the 1 p.m. alert came in, Windham Police Chief Richard Garinger stated in a Dec. 19 press release.
Police located a female who had fled from the home and kept the schools in lockdown until the area was secured, he said. Providing assistance were police from Garrettsville, the Ohio State Highway Patrol and the Portage County Sheriff’s Office.
Shortly after 2:30 p.m. Justin Lee Roderick, 27, exited the home and was taken into custody without incident, Garinger stated. Roderick was booked into the Portage County Jail, where he faces a third-degree felony charge of having weapons under disability, a first-degree misdemeanor charge of inducing panic, and a fourth-degree misdemeanor charge of discharging a firearm near prohibited premises.
Additional charges are pending, Garinger said.
Roderick was arraigned Dec. 19, and was released from the Portage County Jail after posting a $25,000 personal recognizance bond. The bond is contingent on Roderick neither consuming nor possessing alcohol and on his neither using nor possessing illicit substances, court records indicate. He is scheduled to appear in court Dec. 23.
Wendy DiAlesandro is a former Record Publishing Co. reporter and contributing writer for The Portager.