A man with a knife and loaded handgun walked into a school through an open gate in Tucson on Thursday, police said.
Around 9 a.m. a staff member at Legacy Traditional School – East Tucson alerted a uniformed Tucson police officer who was stationed at the school that a man was acting “erratic” in the parking lot. The officer went to the parking lot, but the man, identified as 31-year-old Daniel Hollander, had already left and entered the school’s cafeteria through the open gate, Tucson police said.
Hollander was found in the gym, which was occupied by students and staff, and was sitting and talking to himself. According to police, he was detained without further incident, and a search revealed he had a knife and a loaded handgun.
Hollander was booked into the Pima County Adult Detention Center and charged with attempted terrorism, interfering with an educational institution, misconduct of weapons on school grounds and first-degree burglary.
The authority involved was a school safety officer, an off-duty police officer filling a school resource officer vacancy and is funded by the Arizona Department of Education.
“The School Safety Officer who sought out and arrested this suspect deserves the highest praise,” state Superintendent Tom Horne wrote in an emailed statement.
The elementary school is located at 9290 E. Golf Links Road in Tucson.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Man enters Tucson school with loaded gun and knife, no injuries