Man Charged in Connection With Patuxent Elementary School Incident

On Friday, June 7th at 4:16pm, we received a 911 call of an active shooter at Patuxent Elementary School in the 4400 block of Bishopmill Drive in the unincorporated area of Upper Marlboro.  Officers arrived within minutes of the call, set up a perimeter and entered the facility.  There was an aftercare program in session at the school, so there were approximately six school age children and several adult employees inside the facility. Our officers quickly and safely escorted those individuals out of the building while other officers began searching the facility room by room to ensure that there was no threat.  Officers determined that no one was injured, there was no evidence of shots fired, and there were no weapons found.  

Our officers quickly identified a suspect and with the help of the community, our investigators and search teams located 35-year-old Ricard Campbell of the 16700 block of Wardlow Road in the unincorporated area of Upper Marlboro.   Preliminarily, detectives determined, he had entered the school and made threatening statements to a staff member.  It was later determined that Campbell had a grill lighter in his possession that a staff member perceived, at the time, to be a possible weapon.

Here is a link to the final briefing Friday with Prince George’s County Police Chief Hank Stawinski and Prince George’s County Public Schools CEO, Dr. Monica Goldson:

https://tinyurl.com/yydt2sam



Campbell is now charged with robbery and is currently in the custody of the Department of Corrections.  Preliminarily, detectives determined that while inside the school, he robbed a staff member of a piece of jewelry.  

We sincerely thank Prince George’s County Public Schools, our partner law enforcement and area public safety agencies for their assistance and quick response.   And we sincerely thank our community for your patience and assistance as well.  

As a reminder, in the event of a major critical incident, please be sure to monitor our social media platforms for the latest updates as information becomes available.  You can follow us on Twitter: @PGPDNews and on the Prince George’s County Police Facebook page.