Burlington County man arrested for making terroristic threats near a school
The Southampton Township School District had been under a shelter-in-place order since Tuesday morning.
Southampton Township schools are back to normal after a two-day shelter-in-place order was lifted Thursday morning when a local man was taken into custody by state police for allegedly making terroristic threats.
School administration initiated a “precautionary shelter-in-place” on Tuesday because of increasingly concerning behavior from a neighbor who lives adjacent to the school campus, said Southampton’s superintendent Megan Geibel.
The neighbor, identified by Geibel and other community members as Mark Cozens, owns more than an acre of property directly next to the school’s parking lot.
“We’re happy today we’re back to business as usual and we’ll continue to keep the community abreast of information that comes to us and that we’re allowed to share,” Geibel said Thursday afternoon.
The Burlington County school district serves roughly 700 students from pre-K through 8th grade in three school buildings on a combined campus on Pleasant Street.
On Tuesday morning, Cozens was seen circling the district’s administration building on Main Street twice, in two separate vehicles, within the span of 10 minutes, Geibel said.
The incident came less than a week after Cozens sent Geibel distressing emails after the district called state police to ask him to turn down loud music that was disrupting classrooms, she said.
“We were concerned about the tone of these emails,” she said, noting that they did not contain any specific threats toward the schools but sparked concerns that Cozens may harm himself or others.
Cozens was charged Tuesday with making terroristic threats on Nov. 4, the same day Geibel said she reported the emails to state police, according to court records.
After receiving the emails, Southampton’s schools were closed for the remainder of last week for a pre-scheduled long weekend as staff attended the state’s annual education convention.
Students returned to class without incident Monday, she said.
This is not the first time Cozens has gotten into trouble for his behavior near the school this year.
According to court records, Cozens was arrested on Oct. 14 and charged with reckless discharge of a firearm using live ammunition and endangering others with the risk for substantial injury in relation to an incident involving the school district a week earlier.
On Oct. 7, students at an after-school program were playing outside on the school’s campus when they heard gunshots, Geibel said.
The children went into lockdown while police investigated, she said, before they ultimately determined that Cozens was shooting target practice on his property — which is legally permitted under existing township law.
In light of that event, Geibel said the school district asked the township to adopt an ordinance restricting the use of guns within 1,000 yards of district-owned property. The draft ordinance was discussed for the first time at the Oct. 20 township committee meeting.
It is unclear what prompted Cozens’ behavior in recent weeks.
He had no prior arrests in New Jersey before October, court records indicate.
Prior to this fall, Geibel, who has been superintendent of the district for two years, said she didn’t know who Cozens was.
Though Cozens is in custody, Geibel said that the district kept an additional armed security guard on site Thursday alongside the armed guard and school resource officer from the state police that are on campus daily.
Court records do not indicate where Cozens is being held.
New Jersey State Police declined to comment Thursday pending the release of an official statement.
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