Bates College was placed under a shelter-in-place order in Lewiston on Thursday after police said an armed man was seen near campus, sending students and staff indoors as officers responded to the area.
At 3:40 p.m., Bates College Emergency Management said the Lewiston Police Department notified the college about an armed individual walking on Campus Avenue from Sabattus Street toward Central Avenue. The college sent an emergency message to members of its community at the same time, warning people to avoid Central Avenue and Campus Avenue.
The man was described as a white male in his mid-30s with visible tattoos, wearing a blue hooded sweatshirt and black pants. The alert turned a routine Thursday afternoon into a lockdown response that spread beyond the college, with local hospitals and schools also taking precautionary measures.
Police widened the caution a little more than an hour later. In a Facebook post shared at 4:25 p.m., the Lewiston Police Department asked residents in the College Street area between Sabattus and Russell streets to use caution while officers responded to an ongoing situation.
The shelter-in-place was not a report of an active threat inside the campus itself. It was a precaution tied to a reported armed individual moving near Bates College, and it showed how quickly one sighting can force a wider swath of Lewiston into alert mode. What remained unresolved Thursday evening was whether officers had located the man and cleared the area by the end of the response.