Bainbridge police needed only a day to find a suspect in the Bainbridge High gun scare that set off a three-school lockdown Wednesday.

The voice on the 911 call quickly led police to a suspect in the case, Police Chief Matthew Hamner said Friday.

Island officers arrested Michael Alexander Krysinski, 50, late Thursday on a charge of false reporting, a gross misdemeanor. He remained in Kitsap County Jail Friday on $5,000 bail.

Police allege that Krysinski, a security guard at Bainbridge High, was the person who placed a 911 call on Wednesday morning that claimed a student with a gun had entered the cafeteria at BHS.

The anonymous hang-up call prompted a massive response of island and off-island police units to the sprawling BHS campus on High School Road.

The high school and two adjoining schools — Commodore Options and Ordway Elementary — were also put on lockdown after the call as police from the Bainbridge and Poulsbo departments, and the Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office,   swept the area for a possible shooter. None was found, and the lockdown was lifted about 30 minutes after the 911 call.

Hamner said Police Sgt. Scott Weiss of the Bainbridge department “immediately went into investigative mode to figure out who made this call.”

It took just a day for the case to be closed.

Police soon identified Krysinski as the person who allegedly made the 911 call after Weiss got a copy of the 911 recording and it was played to administrators and other school employees at Bainbridge High.

Four BHS employees — the principal, two associate principals and another employee — all listened to the call individually, and each one said the caller sounded like Krysinski.

“All four independently recognized, and clearly pointed out, that it was Mike’s voice,” Chief Hamner said.

Krysinski was questioned about the case at the Bainbridge police station just after school ended on Thursday.

Krysinski denied the allegations, Hamner said. He was arrested at the end of the interview and taken to Kitsap County Jail, where he was booked just before 6:30 p.m. Thursday.

Krysinski, a Bremerton resident, made his first court appearance Friday via video from the Kitsap County Jail.

According to the statement of probable cause filed in the case, Sgt. Trevor Ziemba also recognized the voice on the 911 call as sounding like Krysinski.

During Krysinski’s interview at the police station, he said he did not see anyone with a gun at the high school and did not see any suspicious students.

When asked if any students were injured during the shooter scare, he allegedly told Bainbridge police that some students had to get counseling after the incident.

When Weiss pressed Krysinski if he was the one who had made the call, however, he denied it. He was then given a pen and a pad of paper to write a statement.

“[Krysinski] looked down toward his feet and didn’t say anything for nearly a minute,” according to the statement of probable cause. “He then said, ‘This is crap.’”

Weiss confronted him that it was his voice on the recording, but Krysinski continued to deny it but said he had “had some ‘run ins’ with the BHS administrative staff and things were a bit rough this school year for him.”

When told that others had recognized his voice, Krysinski again denied making the call.

Police then offered to make a recording of his voice to use as a comparison to the 911 recording, but Krysinski allegedly declined the offer and wanted to talk to an attorney.

After speaking with Bainbridge Island’s public defender, police arrested him for false reporting.

According to court documents, the voice on the 911 recording was a male voice that sounded deep and older, and not the voice of a student.

The caller told 911 dispatchers: “I just saw a student walking to Bainbridge High School’s cafeteria with a gun. I’m leaving, I’m scared.”

The phone used for the bogus call may not have been owned by Krysinski, said Bainbridge’s police chief.

“We believe that the phone he allegedly made the call from was not his,” Hamner said.

“We believe it was a student’s phone,” the chief added.

Hamner praised the work of Bainbridge officers and school district officials.

Training between the department and the school district on active shooter scenarios paid off, he said.

“It was just handled extremely well; very professionally,” Hamner said.

The police response to the school was quick, and an officer was at the school within 20 seconds of the 911 call.

Hamner said Sgt. Ziemba was driving past BHS when the call came in.

“Our officers were out and about and that always constitutes to a timely response,” Hamner said. “That’s another credit to Sgt. Ziemba. He really handled the incident extremely well.”

As school officials began a lockdown of the schools, police set up an incident command center in front of the high school.

As Poulsbo police and deputies from the Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office raced to the scene with island officers, the FBI, Washington State Patrol and Bremerton Police Department were put on standby in case more help was needed.

It wasn’t; police speedily swept the school campus and found no threat.

“Again, I want to give credit to my officer and the manner in which they handled it,” Hamner said. “The Bainbridge Island Police Department responded admirably and did exactly what we expect of law enforcement to do if there were, in fact, an active shooter.”

Officials with the Bainbridge Island School District said Friday that Krysinski has been put on administrative leave.