New Milford Police Chief Addresses High School Gun Incident Saying ‘The Rules are Very Simple’

On Tuesday (4/26/22) New Milford High School was put on lockdown because of a fight and the threat of a gun, that we now know was present on school property.

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The lockdown ended at 10:59 am that day, and the school was secured by the New Milford Police Department. Later that day, the NMPD released the following statement:

"On 04-26-22 at aprox. 0920 the New Milford Police Department responded to the New Milford High School on the report of a weapon on school property. I want to credit our NMPD SRO, all responding police officers, detectives and high school staff for taking immediate action to provide for the security of students and staff at New Milford High School. The school was immediately put into lock-down and officers swiftly moved to locate the involved parties. A juvenile and two other students were detained at the scene. The lock-down was lifted at 1059, the scene is secure, the school is safe and the investigation continues. This is an ongoing and open investigation, involving juveniles and other suspects, therefore further information will not be released at this point, but expect an update as the investigation unfolds."

The Chief continued by saying: “ I have zero tolerance for school related violence, or any violence for that matter, and these suspects and juvenile will be dealt with accordingly.”

We thought this was a situation that warranted an appearance from New Milford Police Chief Spencer Cerruto, on the Ethan and Lou Show. The Chief joined us on Thursday and was underlining his earlier points in the press, and reminding the public, the rules are not hard to follow, saying:

"You know, in my press release, I said that this will be handled accordingly and I stand by that. You know, the rules are easy, the laws are there, the rules are easy. You don't bring a gun to school, you don't punch somebody in the face, you don't break into somebody's house or car, the rules are very simple. 

It's almost common sense, and if you're going to break those rules, if you're going to be a criminal, you're going to have to pay the price and you'll be dealt with accordingly." 

You can listen to our entire interview with Chief Cerruto in the audio player below. In it, he speaks about having to deal with parents who were terrified for their children's safety and seeing the looks on the faces of the students who were afraid for themselves.

That emotional trauma for those students is real, from a distance we can overlook that but this had to be a scary day for them.

We were on the air when this all happened, and we broke the news in an awkward and scary fashion.

BONUS: This is the additional discussion Ethan & I had about the incident on 4/29/22