Police: Truck driver who spurred manhunt suffered medical emergency
May 22—A semi driver who caused a manhunt and school lockdowns Monday was suffering a medical emergency, police revealed.
The Illinois man told a 911 dispatcher that two people flagged him down on Ind. 75 south of Dover and asked to use his phone just before noon. He said the pair then took his phone when they got into a truck parked there and later into buildings on the same property, Boone County Sheriff's Detective Morganne Carpenter said in a news statement.
Western Boone Schools placed Granville Wells Elementary and the junior-senior high school on a soft lockdown while authorities searched for suspects who never materialized.
Police removed the homeowner and truck driver to safe locations and called for the intruders to come out. They did not, because no one was there, Boone County Sheriff Tony Harris said afterward.
"The entire county showed up," Harris said, indicating his deputies and Jamestown, Thorntown, Whitestown, Lebanon and Zionsville police departments, including two utility police K9s. "It started with two people and then four, and they all ran into the barn. But we cleared everything in that area, including the perimeter, and no one was there."
"Upon further investigation, it was determined that the driver of the truck was experiencing a mental health emergency and the events he reported did not actually occur," Carpenter wrote.
