Hero principal wrestles crazed intruder at Queens elementary school

A crazed intruder barged into Queens elementary faculty PS 28 via an open entrance door.
Joe DeMaria for NY Submit

A crazed intruder barged right into a Queens elementary faculty via an open entrance door and was wrestled to the bottom by workers — together with the jui jitsu-trained principal — earlier than cops arrived, The Submit has discovered.

The alarming incident at PS 28, the Pre-Ok to three Thomas Emanuel Early Childhood Heart in Corona, occurred about an hour earlier than dismissal Thursday, when an unarmed man described as “agitated and combative” burst in.

“He got here via the entrance door and simply ran,” mentioned a supply with data of the incident. “The varsity security agent tried to cease him. He fought together with her. Then he tried to get into the elevator as much as the flooring,” the place youngsters have been nonetheless in school rooms.

A college aide began wrestling with the intruder. Then Principal Robert Quintana, who practices the martial artwork jiu jitsu, joined in bringing the suspect to the bottom, the place the security agent handcuffed him.

“I used to be scared,” Quintana advised colleagues later, in response to a supply.

“No person’s going to assault or harm my household,” he mentioned, referring to college students and workers.

Throughout the scuffle, staffers made three 911 calls. However cops from the close by one hundred and tenth Precinct reportedly took 19 minutes to reach, the insider mentioned.

The varsity was locked down previous the two:20 p.m. dismissal time, till an ambulance took the intruder to a metropolis hospital for analysis, cops mentioned.

Principal Robert Quintana wrestled an intruder to the bottom by utilizing his jiu jitsu coaching.

PS 28

“The  heroic actions of Principal Quintana, faculty security and different workers members prevented the scenario from escalating,”  Matthew Crescio, a mother or father and president of the District 24 Neighborhood Training Council, advised The Submit.

“If this particular person was armed with a weapon, he would have been within the constructing for 19 minutes.”

Crescio cited the necessity to lock all faculty doorways – one among a number of security reforms below evaluate in NYC after the college bloodbath in Uvalde, Tex.

The NYPD wouldn't clarify the reported 19-minute response time, saying solely that cops responded to the 911 name at 1:47 pm.

“Upon arrival, faculty workers suggested that the male appeared disoriented when he entered the college. The person turned agitated and combative with faculty workers and tried to hurt himself,” a spokesman mentioned.

The NYPD wouldn't identify the “emotionally disturbed” man, who was not arrested, however taken to an unspecified public hospital “for additional analysis.”

That afternoon, Quintana posted a letter to folks and guardians with out crediting himself, saying, “Shortly earlier than dismissal, an unauthorized particular person entered our faculty constructing. College Security Brokers and NYPD instantly responded, and the college went into a quick lockdown till the person was apprehended and brought into custody. No college students or workers have been harmed throughout this incident.”

Quintana didn't instantly return a name for remark.

In one other scary incident final December, a knife-wielding intruder slipped inside Robert A. Van Wyck Junior Excessive College in Briarwood, and robbed an 11-year-old boy. Outraged dad and mom advised The Submit they didn’t study of the incident from the college till 4 days later. 

Extra reporting by Dana Kennedy