Two schools in South Miami-Dade on lockdown while police search for a suspect in the area
By Colleen Wright and
Michelle Marchante
Arthur and Polly Mays Conservatory of the Arts and Pine Villa Elementary School in South Miami-Dade are on a precautionary lockdown while police search the area for a suspect who is believed to be armed.
Miami-Dade Schools Police Chief Edwin Lopez told the Miami Herald that the lockdowns were done out of an abundance of caution. Arthur and Polly Mays Conservatory of the Arts, 11700 SW 216th St., and Pine Villa Elementary School, 21799 SW 117th Ct., are next-door neighbors and are near South Dixie Highway.
According to @SchPoliceChief, Arthur & Polly Mays 6-12 Conservatory and Pine Villa Elementary are under lockdown out of an abundance of caution.
Police are searching/chasing an assault suspect believed to be armed in the area.
Michelle Marchante covers the pulse of healthcare in South Florida and also the City of Coral Gables. Before that, she covered the COVID-19 pandemic, hurricanes, crime, education, entertainment and other topics in South Florida for the Herald as a breaking news reporter. She recently won first place in the health reporting category in the 2025 Sunshine State Awards for her coverage of Steward Health’s bankruptcy. An investigative series about the abrupt closure of a Miami heart transplant program led Michelle and her colleagues to be recognized as finalists in two 2024 Florida Sunshine State Award categories. She also won second place in the 73rd annual Green Eyeshade Awards for her consumer-focused healthcare stories and was part of the team of reporters who won a 2022 Pulitzer Prize for the Miami Herald’s breaking news coverage of the Surfside building collapse. Michelle graduated with honors from Florida International University and was a 2025 National Press Foundation Covering Workplace Mental Health fellow and a 2020-2021 Poynter-Koch Media & Journalism fellow. Support my work with a digital subscription
