3 Bel Air Schools Locked Down after Gas Station Robbery

After a Churchville Road gas station was held up Friday morning, three Bel Air schools went into lockdown, Cristie Kahler of the Harford County Sheriff's Office said.

According to the sheriff's office, a man with a bandanna over his face brought a handgun into the Xtra Mart on the 2400 block of Churchville Road (MD Route 22) and left with an undisclosed amount of cash around 8:05 a.m.

The lockdown was "standard operating procedure" to ensure that students were safely inside Harford Technical High School, John Archer School and Prospect Mill Elementary School, Kahler said.

The schools are within one mile of where the robbery was reported.

"Whenever there's been an armed robbery...it's a normal safety precaution," Kahler said.

The suspect in the robbery remained at large as of 10:45 p.m., according to Kahler, who said he left the gas station in a white SUV headed toward Aberdeen on MD Route 22.

As of 11 a.m., the schools were no longer under lockdown.

See Related: Campus Hills Gas Station Robbed at Gunpoint

People with information about the suspect can submit tips anonymously at www.harfordsheriff.org or text 274637 with a message starting with "MCS" followed by the tip.