What to Know
- A school counselor allegedly threatened to execute white people and had a knife in his drawer at work
- Police arrested the 63-year-old this week after school officials got tips from a teacher and an anonymous note
- The anonymous note read, in part: "MR LEMON TALKS ABOUT SHOOTING WHITES ALOT! HE IS WAITING FOR PANTHERS TO TELL HIM TO EXECUTE"
A high school counselor in Connecticut was arrested for threatening to go on a killing spree to "execute every white man he gets his hands on," police in Bridgeport said.
Carl Lemon, a 63-year-old in-school suspension counselor at Warren Harding High School, was arrested Wednesday on charges of second-degree threat and breach of the peace.
A five-page police report says Lemon threatened to kill white people, stomped on an American flag and had a kitchen knife in his desk drawer at school.
Police said a teacher alerted officials after he heard Lemon say “he couldn’t wait for the Panthers to give the OK and a revolution begins, because he will execute every white man he gets his hands on.” The teacher told officials Lemon had made similar statements in the past.
Police said the school’s assistant principal also received an anonymous note in her school mailbox this week, reading (sic): “MR LEMON TALKS ABOUT SHOOTING WHITES ALOT! HE IS WAITING FOR PANTHERS TO TELL HIM TO EXECUTE HE STEPS ON AMERICAN FLAG AND DISRESPECTS US CHECK HIS COMPUTER. HE WATCHES RADICAL STUFF DURING CLASS I AM SCARED HE WILL DO SOMETHING HE TOLD A TEACHER THAT HE DOES NOT LIKE THE PRINCIPALS AND HE WILL TAKE THEM OUT HE IS CRAZY.”
The school was placed on lockdown for 10 minutes as Lemon was arrested Wednesday afternoon. Police say he was pacing around his desk and repeatedly opening and closing his desk drawer at the time. A kitchen knife in a plastic bag was later found inside the drawer, according to police.
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Carmen Morales, a grandmother of a sophomore at the school, said she was disappointed by it all.
“Students are like sponges, they practice and they see and they do what the teachers do. They’re here to teach our children, not to mistreat them,” Morales said.
NBC 4 is awaiting comment from the school.
Attempts to contact Lemon for comment have been unsuccessful, and it is unclear if he has an attorney.
Lemon was released on a $5,000 bond and is due back in court on April 11.
