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Gun threat locks down SPC

A man who police say threatened his girlfriend, a student, with a BB gun is arrested after a search.

By Jonathan Abel, Times Staff Writer
Published February 12, 2008

Police say Sean Maness on Monday threatened his girlfriend, a St. Petersburg College student in Clearwater.
	[Jim Damaske | Times]

CLEARWATER - Police locked down St. Petersburg College for about a half-hour Monday as officers searched for a man authorities said threatened his girlfriend with a BB gun.

Sean Maness threatened his girlfriend as he drove her to school at the college's Clearwater campus Monday, according to Clearwater police spokeswoman Elizabeth Daly-Watts.

When they arrived on campus, he kept her car keys and cell phone. The girlfriend, student Krista Loutitt, 18, of Clearwater, went to the administration building and called police at 2:27 p.m.

In response, more than a dozen officers, some with high-powered weapons or shotguns, surrounded the school and closed entrances to the college.

Authorities recovered the BB gun from Loutitt's car.

Police locked down the campus about 3 p.m. with the help of four campus security guards and 10 maintenance workers who stood at the entrances to the buildings. A helicopter was put into the air to look for Maness, who is not a student at the school.

Shortly after 3 p.m., Maness called police from a building on campus to surrender, college spokeswoman Amelia Carey said.

Maness was taken into custody at the northwest corner of the campus.

Asked by a St. Petersburg Times reporter whether he had threatened anyone, Maness said, "Leave me alone."

Maness, whose age and address were not released by Clearwater police, faces charges of aggravated assault with a firearm, possessing a weapon on school grounds and tampering with a witness, police said.

The campus reopened shortly before 3:30 p.m.

About 2,000 students were on campus when the incident occurred, and some said they had no idea there had been a hunt for a gunman on campus.

"It's pretty scary," said Logan Oster, an 18-year-old freshman. "I was just walking around willy-nilly. I didn't know there was a guy with gun."

Student body vice president Michael J. Brown, 23, said he wished the campus had a public address system or some other way to notify people on campus about an emergency.

Carey said the college recently bought reverse-911 technology to send messages to students' cell phones, but the system was not up and running on Monday.

Provost Bert J. Purga said it was fortunate the situation ended without any injuries.

"We're very pleased with how our security personnel worked with the city of Clearwater and vice versa," Purga said.

Staff writer Mike Donila contributed to this report. Jonathan Abel can be reached at jabel@sptimes.com or 727 445-4157.

[Last modified February 11, 2008, 21:21:32]