Police arrested an Asbury Park man Wednesday after his mother said he sent her a note saying he would "shoot up a school like in Texas” -- referring to the recent school shooting in Uvalde that killed 19 students and two teachers.

All schools in the district were put into lockdown Thursday morning as a result of the apparent threat.

William Bailey, 32, was charged with terroristic threats. He also had an active warrant out for his arrest in Plainfield.

Police say the mother called police for a wellness check after his threatening message. Bailey is a homeless man staying at The Mission Shelter in the city.

Police took Bailey to a hospital for an evaluation because of his mental conditions at the time of his arrest. He remains in custody. 

News 12 is told the protocols in place worked. As soon as Asbury Park police notified the district of a potential threat, all schools immediately went into lockdown.

“We were notified of an individual having a possible mental health crisis at the time from Plainfield to the Asbury Park Police Department, which initiated a modified lockdown in all of our schools,” says Asbury Park School District Superintendent Dr. Rashawn M. Adams.

“There's terror these days just dropping your kids off. It doesn't feel normal to me or to any parent to drop your kid off and hope they don't get shot,” says Deputy Mayor Amy Quinn. “That's insanity."

Quinn is a mom to a 6-year-old in the district. She says the steps in place worked during the short time schools went into lockdown before police captured Bailey. 

“Tremendous faith in the Asbury Park Police Department, tremendous faith in the school district and the Board of Education, our superintendent and I'm lucky for that because it was definitely a really scary couple of hours,” says Quinn.

City leaders praise the suspect's mom, because she said something when she saw something.   

“You can't take any of these types of threats cavalier,” says Adams. “She did the right thing by reporting it to the police department, and they did what they needed to do to find out where the last location of that individual was and begin those chains of processes to begin."