EL MIRAGE, AZ — Parents and families at Thompson Ranch Elementary are looking for better communication with law enforcement and school officials after a chaotic scuffle on Friday.
As students remained inside the school, some parents grew frustrated in the heat with an ongoing lockdown.
Video of a scuffle with parents and police shows Jonathan Davis as part of the ordeal.
He tells ABC15, his sister and two cousins were inside the school during a lockdown. He says parents got mixed messages from police on if they were allowed to be on campus or not.
Like many other parents at the time, he was unsure if there was an active shooter.
Then parents started hearing about a suspicious package in the school.
“Every time I see (Police) put their hands on somebody, I say, ‘hey calm down. you're going to cause a bigger issue, we need to worry about these kids right now,’” he said.
Video of the clash between parents and police shows someone's gun hit the ground. A civilian puts their foot on the gun and you can hear people shout, “there’s a gun! There’s a gun!”
As police look to secure it, the video shows officers tase two people, one was Jonathan.
"I just feel my body lock up,” he said. "When I lost vision, I thought they actually shot me.”
After the weekend, Jonathan still has a scuff on his nose, some scrapes on his stomach and staples in his head - are all from the moment he was tased and hit the ground of the elementary concrete.
Jonathan was charged with disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor.
The person with the gun seen in the video was identified as a 22-year-old charged with disorderly conduct, misconduct involving weapon,s and possessing a deadly weapon on school grounds.
Another 48-year-old was transported to a local hospital, whose charges are still pending according to El Mirage police.
El Mirage police said the alleged gunman never entered the school and was later arrested and that the suspicious package was later deemed safe.
Family members like Jonathan feel there needs to be a better way to know if their student is safe during a lockdown, especially after the massacre in Uvalde, Texas.
"They want us to believe they're keeping our communities safe, when stuff like this happens, and this is how they treat us,” said Angel Davis, Jonathan's sister who was also at the school that day.
Psychologist Dr. Katherine Kuhlman specializes in mass shooting traumas. She’s said in these situations, uncertainty can lead to panic. The more school officials, police and parents know can alleviate that uncertainty.
“Understand what that training looks like, to allow LE to explain what that training looks like, that's going to quell anxiety and fear,” said
ABC15 has requested the body camera footage from the El Mirage officers to see their point of view from the August 12th incident outside of the school.
Police say they continue to investigate what happened that day and will give an update “when available.”
