Police in Riverside, California, shot a parent who had taken a teacher hostage—in a dramatic end to an hourslong standoff inside a school.
Officers swarmed the school, entering the classroom at 6 p.m. local time, seven hours after it started.
It’s unclear if the man was armed with a gun.
When the parent arrived on campus, he got into a confrontation with a teacher, said Riverside Police Officer Ryan Railsback. The parent did not appear to follow the school district’s safety procedures and check in with the front desk, he added.
Police also used a flash grenade to distract the suspect.
“He had a breakdown, and he relapsed again. That’s all, he’s not dangerous,” said Carl Jackson, the suspect’s uncle. “It’s just a matter of getting in there and talking to him, because we can talk to him. He'll come out for us if police let us, before anything bad happen to him.”
“He’s a good kid, just having an emotional breakdown. He doesn’t have no access to no weapons,” Jackson said.
Ariana Montgomery, the teacher’s granddaughter, told KTLA, “I couldn’t even imagining this ever happening to her.”
“I was just scared, I was trembling with fear,” student Giselle Gomez told KTLA.
Jennifer Sandoval, the mother of a sixth-grader at the school, added, “It was scary.”