Three parents were arrested, two of whom were tased, during a confrontation outside an Arizona elementary school that had been locked down over a report of someone with a gun Friday, El Mirage police said.
Thompson Ranch Elementary School was locked down after a report around 10:30 a.m. that someone who appeared to have a handgun had tried to open a locked door and ran off, El Mirage police Lt. Jimmy Chavez said.
That person was later taken into custody and was being evaluated by mental health professionals and police in El Mirage, a city northwest of Phoenix, said in a later statement. The statement did not say if any gun was found.
Police said criminal charges are pending against the man, whose identity has not been released, but did not say what they could be.
The security scare in El Mirage occurred a little more than two months after a mass shooting and botched police response at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, that left 19 children and two teachers dead.
The three parents were arrested outside the school in Arizona on Friday as several parents said they would go onto the locked-down campus to protect their children, Chavez said.
“As a parent, I understand that philosophy; however, there were procedures that law enforcement and the school were following,” Chavez told reporters at the scene.
Chavez said that one of those arrested, a man described as the “main instigator,” was armed, and a handgun fell to the ground as he was being arrested.
