Frantic Parents Tased, Arrested Amid Arizona School Lockdown – By Evann Gastaldo (Newser) / Aug 15, 2022
Suspect was also arrested; no students were injured
(NEWSER) – After an Arizona elementary school was locked down Friday morning, police arrested the armed man who allegedly triggered the lockdown by trying to enter the school—and they also arrested three family members who were among those gathered at the school, concerned for the safety of their children. Police say the suspect ran off after officers arrived; as they searched for him, a suspicious package was also found on campus, which a bomb squad ultimately determined to be safe, AZFamily.com reports. While the school was still locked down, parents started arriving, and police say some of them got confrontational with officers who would not let them into the school. Some allegedly tried to jump fences to get in, police say.
Ultimately, three people were arrested, and police say all will be charged. (AZFamily.com reports all three were parents, but one of the women involved talked to 12 News about the experience and says her older son, who came with her to get her daughter from the school, was among those arrested.) Two of the arrested adults were also tased by police amid what are described as “scuffles” between family members and police, and one had to be taken to a hospital after the stun gun was used on them. “A subject … pushed my officer in the chest with force and during the assault a handgun was found on them,” the El Mirage police chief says in a statement. “Two other people tried to protect this person from being arrested and were also arrested. Just because one may not agree with a law doesn’t give them a right to disobey whatever laws they don’t agree with.”
