Kent Man Arrested for Inducing Panic Near High School

It's been a hairy 24 hours for students and parents of Theodore Roosevelt High School.

Kent Police arrested a Kent man Monday afternoon after receiving calls that he was waving a gun in public near the high school campus.

Kent Police Lt. James Prusha said five officers responded to a call at 2:41 p.m. Monday that a man was carrying a gun on North Mantua Street near Needham Avenue — several hundred feet from the school when classes were ending for the day.

Prusha said officers encountered Todd J. Hyde, 19, of 1528 Benjamin Court, and found he was carrying an air-powered BB gun.

"You couldn't tell it was a BB gun until you got right up on it," Prusha said.

One parent who saw Hyde carrying the air gun called the high school, which in turn called police, Kent City Schools Director of Business Services Jim Soyars said.

Neither police nor school officials could confirm if Hyde is a student at the high school. Hyde told officers he removed the gun from his pocket to reload the BB cartridge after it become dislodged from the gun.

Prusha said the department received several calls, and as a result Hyde was charged with inducing panic, a first-degree misdemeanor.

It's not illegal to carry an air gun or BB gun in public.

"There was no indication he pointed it at anybody," Prusha said. "To do that at school closing time when all the students are exiting makes everybody uptight, justifiably so, and is illegal in my book."

Hyde is scheduled to be arraigned on the charge in Portage County Municipal Court Thursday morning.

The gun scare happened less than 24 hours before a report of suspicious packages found this morning at the high school that turned out to be a false alarm.