An armed man, Christopher Craft, who is a former student of Stissing Mountain High School, held the school principal, Bob Hess, hostage for more than an hour before he surrendered to the police without firing the gun on Tuesday (November 10).

“Evidently, there is some speculation that he (the gunman) had a loved one in the military and somehow this is some contrived scheme on his part to do something about that,” Pine Plains Town Supervisor Gregg Pulver told The Associated Press Radio.

The students who had been locked in their rooms are being evacuated and the worried parents are being gathered in a parking lot at a restaurant close to the school. Fortunately, this incident had a happy ending but the gunman’s motive is still unknown.