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 locked down on Friday after a gunman was seen in trying to enter campus, authorities said.
The parents were arrested as they tried to reach their children for protection, authorities said. Officers in the Phoenix suburb of El Mirage used a Taser to arrest two of them as they tried to help a man whose own handgun fell to the ground while he was taken into custody view, authorities said.
The scene at Thompson Ranch Elementary School unfolds nearly three months after hundreds of law enforcement officers in the small Texas town of Uvalde failed to act for more than an hour while that a gunman killed two teachers and 19 students.
No shots were fired at Thompson Ranch, the school was not breached and no one was injured except for a woman taken to hospital with Taser wounds 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, Lt. Jimmy Chavez said of the El Mirage police.
But the school was still closed, meaning no one would be allowed on campus, according to protocols that police and the school district put in place. It was then that upset parents demanded to be allowed into the school so they could find their children and began to clash with police, authorities said.
“Several parents continued their agitation, made multiple statements that they were coming to campus to help protect their children,” Chavez said. “As a parent, I understand this philosophy. However, there are procedures that law enforcement and the school were following.
Chavez said a man started pushing to get past officers and as police pulled him over, a man and woman who had also clashed with officers came to his aid. Officers used a Taser to subdue them and they too were arrested. As the first man was arrested, a gun fell to the ground.
The armed parent will face a weapons charge — firearms are not permitted on school property — and a disorderly conduct charge. The two parents who were knocked unconscious by the Taser will face unspecified charges. The woman was taken by ambulance to the hospital, Chavez said. None were 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 enter and was chased away by staff before El Mirage police and two other agencies arrived at the school, Chavez said.
Officers who searched the school to make sure it was safe found a suspicious package and called a bomb squad, Chavez said, and moved children to another part of campus.
That’s when the parents started arriving and the clashes with the officers began, with the parents “forcefully pushing the officers trying to get to campus.”
“Parents need to understand that when school is closed and law enforcement is on site, no one will be allowed on campus,” Chavez said.
Chavez said the school’s lockdown procedures between the school district and law enforcement “worked like a charm.”
Police then located the man who had triggered the lockdown. He was being assessed 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.