After the Thursday morning arrest of an armed suspect at a Tucson school, Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne is calling for increased on-campus police presence.
Daniel Hollander, 31, faces charges of attempted terrorism, interfering with an educational institution, weapons misconduct on school grounds, and first-degree burglary, Tucson police announced.
Hollander was apprehended by Officer William Bonnano, an off-duty Tucson police officer working at Legacy Traditional School – East Tucson, a charter school near East Golf Links Road. Police reported that parents had alerted authorities about a man “acting erratically” in the school parking lot.
At a press conference on Thursday, Tucson Police Chief Chad Kasmar stated that Hollander was armed with a knife and a loaded gun when Officer Bonnano discovered him sitting and talking to himself in the school gymnasium, where students were waiting for the school day to begin. According to Kasmar, Hollander had been using narcotics for several days and admitted that he was at the school with the intent to harm children.
Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne applauds during the start of the 57th legislative session on Jan. 13, 2025, in Phoenix.
Kasmar noted that Hollander had no known connection to the school, and the investigation has not yet determined why he targeted the campus.
“I can tell you with the preliminary history of this individual, it wouldn’t have been somebody that was probably on our radar,” Kasmar said.
Bonnano was serving as a school safety officer, a position funded by a state grant. According to Chief Kasmar, 28 other Tucson police officers are currently assigned across eight campuses.
“By the skin of our teeth, we avoided that nightmare by a police officer, newly funded by the Department of Education annually, on the job arresting a man who was in a room with 20 students and additional adults, who said that he was going to make the students immortal by killing all of them,” Horne said in a statement on Friday.
The state’s schools superintendent attributed Bonnano’s hiring to the $48 million in school safety funding announced by the education department early last month.
Horne urged the passage of House Bill 2074, which he noted has cleared committee and would provide funding for additional school safety officers like Bonnano. The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Matt Gress, a Republican from Phoenix, stated in a press release shared by the education department, “No space is entirely safe, and we must do everything we can to protect innocent lives.”
In his praise for Bonnano and his plea for more officers, Horne referenced the loss of his three-year-old daughter, Sarah.
“The heroism of this officer means that more than 20 families have not experienced the tragic death or injury to an innocent child. As a parent who has suffered the loss of a child, I can tell you that you never get over it,” Horne said in his statement.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Armed suspect at school prompts Tom Horne to plea for more AZ funding