Craft

PINE PLAINS – Police have charged Chris Craft, 42, of Pine Plains with Kidnapping in the first degree, criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree and criminal trespass in the first degree after he took a shotgun into Stissing Mountain Middle School in Pine Plains on Tuesday morning and held the principal hostage.

Craft walked into the school around 7:45 a.m. with a shotgun hidden on him in pieces. He reassembled it in a bathroom and went looking for Principal Robert Hess. He found him and took him hostage until he was talked into surrendering by a police negotiator.

Craft has “a number of previous misdemeanor criminal convictions,” said Assistant Dutchess County District Attorney Ed Whitesell. He said there were apparently no recent actions that led to Tuesday’s events.

“Based upon what he said, this did not have anything to do with any recent incidents at the school. I know there has been some discussion about that, but it did not have anything which occurred recently at the school.”

Law enforcement and Superintendent of Schools Linda Kaumeyer had nothing but praise for the police.

Kaumeyer, left, addresses media, while police maintain high visibility at the school

State Police Troop K Commander Major William Carey said the principal handled the situation very well.

“We were certainly given a great deal of assistance in this case by different people inside the school, primarily the middle school principal, who was the victim in this case, and how he handled himself, as well as a custodian at the school who facilitated the entry of our contact team.”

Students were evacuated from the school during the hostage situation, but were returned when it was over for a full accounting before they were dismissed for the day.