By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
A police manhunt that put the Peddie School on lockdown for nearly three hours Thursday afternoon ended with authorities catching two teenagers who had crashed their stolen car on the lawn of the campus, fled and were found hiding a top of a school building.
Peter S. Davidson, 19, of Cornwall, New York, and his 17-year-old girlfriend were brought down from the unidentified building, with the aid of the borough fire department, police said. The girl, whose name was not disclosed, was hospitalized “for evaluation,” while Mr. Davidson was being held on undisclosed charges, police said.
They had been traveling through town in a reported stolen GMC SUV out of New York, when around 1:45 p.m. a Hightstown Police officer spotted the SUV driving “in a reckless manner” and passing other vehicles in the opposite traffic lane, police alleged. Police said the officer turned down South Street and saw that the SUV had crashed on the Peddie lawn on South Main Street and South and Mr. Davidson and the girlfriend fleeing.
The two “hopped a fence” to get on campus with police later saying they were getting reports that they were armed. A BB gun allegedly was found in the SUV, police claimed.
Hightstown authorities worked with New Jersey State Police and other area police departments, including a dog unit and a SWAT team, to look for them, police said. Mr. Davidson and his girlfriend were reported to be in the school library, with the building having to be evacuated, police said. The two were not found there, but police said they caught up with them around 4:25 p.m. hiding on the roof of another campus building.
Around 4:55 p.m., the school announced on its Twitter account that the school was “all clear,” with school headmaster Peter Quinn later taking to social media with an update and to thank law enforcement.
