NORTH LAS VEGAS -- Four North Las Vegas schools were locked down after shots were fired in the area Monday.

At about 2:40 p.m., a North Las Vegas Police Officer and another city employee were investigating a report of illegal dumping in a desert area southeast of Commerce Street and Reverend Wilson Avenue. They made contact with suspicious people in a pickup truck in the dirt lot, police said.

At 2:50 p.m., the officer reported the group was being shot at by a person in the neighborhood south of them. The group, including the officer, took cover behind vehicles, and no one was injured. A person was seen by residents fleeing toward Shield Street, but they lost sight of him, police said.

Police said two elementary schools were immediately locked down. A perimeter was established around the neighborhood to allow a yard-by-yard and door-to-door search the shooter. Metro police air units, NLVPD and Henderson police K-9 search teams searched the neighborhood looking for the shooter and the gun.

Jo Mackey Elementary School at 2726 Englestad St., and H.P. Fitzgerald Elementary School at 2651 Revere St. remained locked down for nearly 3 and a half hours.

Two more schools, Jeffrey Behavior Junior and Senior High School at 602 W. Brooks Ave. and Desert Rose Adult High School and Career Center at 444 W. Brooks Ave. were also locked down during the incident and were reopened at the same time the elementary school students were released at approximately 6:20 p.m., when the search for the shooter and weapon proved unsuccessful, police said.

The shooter remains at large and was described by witnesses as a black man, 15 to 20, 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighing 160 pounds. He was last seen wearing a black jacket, blue jeans and a black beanie cap in the area of Shield Street and Rossmoyne Avenue immediately after the shooting, police said.

All children were released to parents at their own school after the incident.

Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 702-385-5555.