PHOENIX –
Police arrested three Arizona parents, shocking two of them with stun guns, as they tried to force their way into a school that police closed Friday after a gunman was seen trying to enter the campus, police said. authorities.
The parents were arrested as they tried to reach their children to protect them, authorities said. Officers in the Phoenix suburb of El Mirage used a Taser to detain two of them as they tried to help a man whose own pistol fell to the ground while being detained, authorities said.
The scene at Thompson Ranch Elementary School unfolded nearly three months after hundreds of law enforcement officers in the small town of Uvalde, Texas, failed to act for more than an hour when a gunman killed two teachers and 19 students.
There were no shots fired at Thompson Ranch, the school was not violated and no one was injured apart from a woman who was taken to a hospital with Taser injuries by officers who say they were trying to stop him from attacking them.
By the time the clashes with the upset parents began, police had already confirmed there was no longer a threat, removed a suspicious package and planned to begin reuniting the parents with the children, El Mirage Police Lt. Jimmy Chavez said.
But the school was still on lockdown, meaning no one would be allowed on campus, in accordance with established police and school district protocols. That’s when the upset parents demanded to be allowed into the school so they could find their children and began confronting police, authorities said.
“Several parents continued their agitation, made various statements that they were going to come to campus to help protect their children,” Chavez said. “As a father I understand that philosophy. However, there are procedures that the police and the school were following.”
Chavez said a man began to push past the officers and as police were arresting him, a man and woman who had also been confronting the officers came to his aid. The officers used a Taser to subdue them and they were also arrested. As the first man was being detained, a gun fell to the ground.
The armed parent will face a weapons charge (weapons are not allowed on school grounds) and a disorderly conduct charge. The two parents who were stunned with the Taser will face unspecified charges. The woman was taken by ambulance to a hospital, Chavez said. Neither was immediately identified.
The incident began around 10:30 a.m. Friday, when school officials called police to report that a man, possibly armed with a gun, was trying to enter a locked school building. He was unable to get in and was chased by staff before El Mirage police and two other agencies arrived at the school, Chavez said.
Officers searching the school to make sure it was safe found a suspicious package and called in a bomb squad, Chavez said, moving some children to another part of the campus.
That’s when parents began arriving and confrontations with officers began, with parents “forcefully pushing officers who were trying to enter the campus.”
“Parents need to understand that when the school is closed and the police are on the scene, no one will be able to enter the campus,” Chavez said.
Chavez said the school lockdown procedures between the school district and law enforcement “worked perfectly.”
Later, the police located the man who had caused the blockade. He was being evaluated Friday night by mental health professionals and a police statement said charges were pending.
Efforts to contact El Mirage police on Saturday for additional information were not immediately successful.