Shot fired in Vernon Hills neighborhood puts schools on brief lockdown

Police in Vernon Hills are investigating a shots fired report Tuesday morning that led to several nearby schools enacting a soft lockdown.

According to police, officers responded at 8:45 a.m. to reports of a gunshot fired on the 300 block of Plumwood in the village's Westwood subdivision, near Route 45 and Butterfield Road.

Police said a preliminary investigation indicated that two nonresidents got into a dispute, leading one to pull out a handgun and fire a shot into a parked, unoccupied vehicle. Those involved had fled the area by the time officers arrived, police said.

As a precaution, officials at Vernon Hills-based Hawthorn Elementary District 73 and Vernon Hills High School placed their buildings on a soft lockdown, and Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire closed its campus. District 73's lockdown was lifted before 10 a.m., spokeswoman Leslie Piotrowski said. Operations returned to normal Stevenson and Vernon Hills before 10 a.m. as well, officials said.

"We believe this was an isolated incident with no immediate threat to the community," police said in a written statement Tuesday.