Posted: Feb 7, 2012 5:51 PM by Lindsay Curtis
Updated: Feb 7, 2012 7:08 PM

BEN BOLT - Students at Ben Bolt Middle School spent more than five hours on lockdown today as law enforcement searched for three suspects on the run.

Border Patrol helicopters circled overhead searching for three suspects who jumped out of a Chevy pick-up truck around 6:30 Tuesday morning. Officials say the driver of the truck and his four passengers tried getting away from border patrol. Agents chased the truck until it crashed into a fence on Highway 281 north of Ben Bolt.

A Jim Wells County Sheriff's deputy says the people inside the truck are suspected illegal immigrants. When the driver crashed into the fence Border Patrol arrested him and a female passenger. Three other men ran into the field about a quarter of a mile north of Ben Bolt Middle School.

At 6:45 the school went into lockdown as law enforcement searched for the suspects, one of whom was suspected to be carrying a shot gun. DPS, ICE, and Border Patrol agents as well as Jim Wells Sheriff Deputies surrounded the campus. Around noon, the suspects were found and arrested and the lockdown was lifted by then, word of the lockdown had spread around town to the ben bolt- palito blanco high school where rosa palacios was picking up her daughter... they both say they felt safe despite the morning's events.

Officials say it's not clear whether any of the suspects were indeed armed.

Five Hour Lockdown at Ben Bolt M.S. During Border Patrol Search | Corpus Christi, TX | KRISTV.com |