South Tucson police took hours to respond to a report from employees at an elementary school reporting a confrontation across the street that possibly involved an armed man as well as threatening text messages involving the school that followed, officials say.
Staff at Mission View Elementary, 2600 S. Eighth Ave., made the first call to police at 7:11 a.m. on June 21, according to information provided by a Tucson Unified School District governing board member. Police records show that a South Tucson Police officer arrived at the school at 10:32 a.m., more than three hours later.
βItβs very disappointing,β said TUSD governing board member Sadie Shaw. βYouβd think that something as serious as it was would be addressed immediately.β
At the time of the incident, Shaw said, there were teachers, students and staff on campus for summer school.
Fortunately, she said, the TUSD school safety team arrived six minutes after the first call. She said they immediately took to locking down the campus. District officers then stationed in front of the school, directly across from where the armed man had been seen.
South Tucson Police Chief Danny Denogean said there was no excuse for the delayed response.
βIβm not going to make any excuses. We needed to get there in a better time frame,β Denogean said. βWe need to get there in an appropriate amount of time and we didnβt get there in an appropriate time. We know that.β
He said the delayed response was partly due to not realizing the severity of the situation in the initial call, as well as being short-staffed with only two officers on shift at the time.
Timeline
The first call related to the incident came in about 7:05 a.m. from a man reporting that he had found his stolen box truck across the street from the school and needed police help retrieving it. That call was classified as low priority by the department based on its staffing, Denogean said.
A few minutes later, Mission View staff called police to report that a custodian saw an argument at the same property, and that one of the men had pulled a gun on another man.
But the South Tucson Police had already directed the only two officers on shift to handle another call.
Mission View staff then placed a second call to police to report that a parent alerted the school to threatening text messages that their child had received, in which someone said they would βshoot the school security if they were to talk to him next door.β
Denogean said the first officer arrived on scene of the altercation about 9:05 a.m., two hours after the first call. The second officer, according to police reports, arrived at Mission View Elementary at 10:32 a.m.
He noted there was reason to suspect the threatening text messages were related to the altercation across from campus, but officers were unable to gather evidence to confirm that.
He said that police officers did not find anyone matching the description of the alleged gunman, and were unable to confirm who sent the threatening texts. Officers conducted interviews related to both incidents as part of the investigation, but no charges were presented to anyone involved.
βI canβt change what happened in the past, but the goal is to provide education for our officers, to re-train people and to make sure that this doesnβt happen in the future,β Denogean said.
For the districtβs part, according to information provided by Shaw, school safety officers kept watch on campus for the remainder of that week as a precaution.
βWe should all be proud of the quick action of TUSDβs school safety team who did not hesitate to protect the people inside those buildings,β Shaw said in a Facebook post about the incident.
