UPDATE 4: A South Carolina man has been arrested in connection to an alleged attempted child abduction at a Whitley County school earlier Friday.
According to a release from Kentucky State Police Public Affairs Officer Trooper Scottie Pennington, law enforcement officials arrested Willie O. Bethea, 37, of Latta, South Carolina, after being located at Walmart in Corbin.
Sometime Friday afternoon, Bethea allegedly tried to lure a child from a playground and into his vehicle at Whitley County Intermediate School. He was confronted by school officials and quickly fled the scene.
Bethea has been charged with attempted kidnapping of a minor, first–degree criminal trespassing, operating a motor vehicle on a suspended or revoked operator’s license and first–degree persistent felony offender.
UPDATE 3: After initial reports of an apparent attempted abduction at a Williamsburg school Friday afternoon, we are now learning that a suspect has apparently been detained in Corbin.
UPDATE 2: Williamsburg Superintendent Tabetha Housekeeper has released a statement clearing up confusion concerning Friday afternoon’s report of an apparent attempted abduction at a school in the Williamsburg area. Housekeeper said, “False information was shared from a local school district. The following message was communicated and it is not true: ‘KY State Police reported an attempted abduction of a student at Williamsburg Elementary. The suspect was last seen traveling North on I-75 prompting alerts for local schools.'”
“This information is incorrect,” Housekeeper’s statement went on to say. “Williamsburg School Resource Officers were alerted of a situation where a visitor interacted with a student on a playground of another school district earlier this morning. Once they received this information, Williamsburg Independent Schools prompted all students to come back inside the building. All exterior doors were checked for security, school and district Administrators monitored the hallways, doors, etc., and no students were allowed outside of the building until local law enforcement assured our SRO’s that the situation was handled and our students were in no harm. At no time during the day was any student or staff member at Williamsburg City School in danger or threatened. We were not involved in this situation at all.”
UPDATE: Kentucky State Police has confirmed that the Whitley County Sheriff’s Department is investigating the matter, and that Corbin Police have detained someone at the Corbin Wal-Mart who could be involved. The News Journal is attempting to obtain more facts on the exact nature of the incident, as well as confirm whether or not an arrest has been made.
ORIGINAL: An all-call sent out by the Corbin Independent School District Friday afternoon announced that schools had been placed on a soft lockdown as a precautionary measure after a report of an attempted abduction in Williamsburg.
The all-call, which went out at approximately 2:15 p.m., said, “At approximately 1:45 PM today, all Corbin Independent Schools entered a soft lockdown. This precautionary measure was taken after Kentucky State Police reported an attempted abduction of a student at Williamsburg Elementary. The suspect was last seen traveling north on I-75, prompting heightened alert across our schools.”
“We want to reassure everyone that all students and staff are safe. Local law enforcement agencies are actively monitoring the situation.”
Additional details will be provided as soon as they are known.
