Swanton police told residents near North Main Street and Valley Woods Drive to stay inside and lock their doors Sunday night while officers searched for someone they considered potentially armed and dangerous. By late that night, the person had been taken into custody and the shelter-in-place order had been lifted.
The department first issued the public safety alert around 9:45 p.m. Sunday as investigators converged on the area of North Main Street, also known as State Route 64, and Valley Woods Drive, according to 13abc.com. Police asked residents in the immediate area to stay indoors, lock their doors and windows, and avoid unnecessary travel and outdoor activities while the search was underway, per the WTOL 11 report by Mark Bickle.
Residents Told to Avoid the Search Zone
Officers also asked the broader public to steer clear of the search area entirely and not to approach or confront anyone considered suspicious. Anyone with information about the individual's whereabouts, or who spotted suspicious activity, was urged to call 911 instead of intervening directly, according to the WTOL 11 report.
The alert went out as officers worked an active scene in a residential stretch of the village, with the specific intersection named as the focus of the search.
Arrest Brings Lockdown to a Close
The shelter-in-place order was lifted once the person considered potentially armed and dangerous was taken into custody late Sunday night, the same 13abc.com report states. Swanton Police Chief John Trejo said around 11:20 p.m. that there was no longer an immediate threat to the public.
Chief Trejo said additional updates would be provided as more information became available, per the WTOL 11 account. As of the latest reporting, police had not publicly disclosed the person's name or explained why they were considered dangerous in the first place.
A Community Still Watching Police Activity Closely
Sunday's lockdown is the kind of incident that tends to rattle a small village, and Swanton has had reason for heightened vigilance before. In March 2024, the department investigated a fatal shooting on South Main Street near Garfield Avenue, where officers responding to a report of two injured people found a male occupant of a vehicle dead at the scene from an apparent gunshot wound, according to The Village Reporter. A second male occupant in that earlier case was detained and taken to a hospital for treatment, the outlet reported at the time.
That 2024 case is a separate investigation with no confirmed connection to Sunday's shelter-in-place alert. For now, the department has said only that the threat from Sunday night's search has passed, with no further details yet released about the person taken into custody or the circumstances that prompted the alert.
