Sisters student in custody for Bend killing

A Sisters High School student is in custody in connection with the killing of a man in Drake Park on Friday, April 16.

Bend Police detectives and Deschutes County Sheriff's deputies took 17-year-old senior Steven Withrow into custody without incident at the high school.

The school was briefly under lock-down as the arrest was made.

Sisters High School Principal Bob Macauley told The Nugget that at 10 a.m. on Monday, School Resource "Deputy (Tim) Hernandez informed me that the Bend detectives would be coming out to talk to one of our students about the death of the (man) in Drake Park."

Detectives arrived at 10:25 a.m. and police coordinated with school staff to have Withrow called out of class. According to Macauley, Withrow was then escorted off campus by three Bend detectives. According to Macauley, the student was cooperative.

"Once (the student) was out of the classroom we were in a five-minute lockdown," the principal said.

In a lockdown, students are cleared out of the halls and accounted for in classrooms. Teachers lock the doors and stay with the class.

"It was strictly precautionary," Macauley said. "We didn't want any kids in the halls or in open areas while this was going on."

Macauley informed his staff after the incident and students were told after lunch on Monday.

Macauley said, "several of the teachers were in tears because it hurts to have a kid in this kind of mess."

According to reports in The Bulletin, Curtis Dean Kizer, 42, was found injured in Drake Park on Friday evening and died at St. Charles Medical Center that night.

Further details on the incident were unavailable as of 1 p.m. Monday.