Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect newer information.
COLUMBIA — Derby Ridge Elementary School was locked down for about an hour and a half Thursday morning while the Columbia Police Department investigated a tip about a suspect wanted in a shooting from last month.
Police had received a tip that Malcolm D. Redmon, 24, was at a house on the 4200 block of Derby Ridge Drive, police Sgt. Dianne Bernhard said.
Redmon is wanted in connection with the October shooting on Park Avenue that left two injured. Boone County prosecutors issued a warrant for Redmon, who is charged with two counts of first-degree assault and two counts of armed criminal action. Police have offered a $1,000 award for information that leads to his arrest.
“We still do want him,” Bernhard said.
Bernhard said the tipster “gave some pretty good information” and that police interviewed the people inside the house, but Redmon was not there. Bernhard said the interviews did not yield much more information.
“They were not extremely cooperative with us,” she said.
Police instructed neighbor Helen Jackman, of 4208 Derby Ridge, to leave her home while police searched the house next door for Redmon.
“They told me they were looking for a bad man, a really bad man,” Jackman said. “They didn’t want me in the house in case he came through my window or something during the search.”
Jackman said the police told her they would only enter her house to make sure that Redmon had not run into her house during the search.
When Jackman returned home, her house was in disarray, she said. Jackman is in the process of moving and many of her moving boxes were opened and had clearly been gone through, she said.
Her grandson’s mattress had been moved, and cabinets and drawers had been opened, she said.
“You could tell they had gone through everything,” Jackman said. “I don’t know why they were looking in my boxes. A grown man couldn’t hide in a box of appliances,” she said.
Jackman said she questions why the police wanted to come into her home in the first place.
“I’m an upstanding citizen and I’ve got nothing to hide,” Jackman said. “I have no connection to that man they’re looking for.”
The lockdown began around 9 a.m. and ended at about 10:30, said Lynn Barnett, assistant superintendent for Columbia Public Schools. She said it was simply a precautionary measure to ensure students’ safety.
Barnett said six to seven police vehicles were in the area and that the school district was in direct communication with the Police Department.
Lange Middle School, located near Derby Ridge, was locked down for about 20 minutes Tuesday morning after a report of shots fired. The elementary school was not locked down then.