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Brewster High School locks doors after man runs onto campus
By TERRY CORCORAN
tcorcora@lohud.com
THE JOURNAL NEWS

(Original publication: June 13, 2006)

SOUTHEAST — A 31-year-old man is due in Town Court tomorrow to answer charges that he caused an accident near Brewster High School, then fled by running onto the school campus, forcing administrators to lock the doors.

"The principal locked all exterior doors and posted a teacher at each door," Capt. William McNamara of the Putnam County Sheriff's Office said yesterday of the incident last week.

But the doors were unlocked about two hours after the Thursday crash on Foggintown Road when police assured school officials they were confident the suspect had left the area.

He was apprehended — four hours later and three miles away — in a gas station parking lot at Routes 312 and 22 with help from an MTA Police canine unit, authorities said.

The crash happened around 9:15 a.m. as the man, a native of Guatemala who admitted to being in the U.S. illegally, was heading west on Foggintown Road in a Honda Accord registered to a Waterbury, Conn., woman, police said.

He collided head-on with a Honda Civic, police said, that was driven by a 44-year-old Carmel woman who was taken by Brewster Ambulance to Putnam Hospital Center in Carmel after complaining of soreness in her head, neck and back. Meanwhile, he took off and was last seen running into a wooded area east of the high school, police said.

McNamara said police have tentatively identified the man, who gave police conflicting statements about his identity. Police said they believe he was living in Waterbury until recently, when he may have been living out of a car parked in a Southeast lot.

Police ran a fingerprint check of the man in a nationwide database but got no hits. McNamara said they notified federal authorities of his immigration status after he admitted being in the U.S. illegally.

He was charged with leaving the scene of a personal-injury automobile accident, a misdemeanor, and driving without a license and failing to keep right, both violations. He was being held yesterday in the Putnam County jail.

Reach Terry Corcoran at tcorcora@lohud.com or 845-228-2275.