KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Many police units were on the scene of a Kansas City middle school Monday morning where a man described as ‘combative’ was on the roof.
The principal at Eastgate Middle School, located at 4700 Parvin Road, spotted a man in his mid-30’s on the school’s roof, then called police placing the school on lockdown with students inside.
Police said when they arrived on the scene the man refused to come down from the roof, so police were forced to retrieve him. When officers got up to the roof the man was hiding behind some type of air-conditioning unit. Originally the man was thought to be masked, but police later determined he had pulled his shirt up over his face.
Police conducted a thorough search of the school and grounds and determined the man was acting alone. Shortly before 11:00 a.m. the man was tazed by police and taken into custody, about a half hour after the incident began. The man was seen on a stretcher being loaded into an ambulance.
At about 11:30 a.m. Michelle Cronk, North Kansas City School District spokesperson, told FOX 4 that students would be relocated to another school to be reunited with parents. Authorities say the principal handled this situation in the best way possible.
“He did an excellent job, made immediate notification to law enforcement; he immediately locked down his school. The kids were in no way harmed or in, in fear of being harmed. The teachers there I believe, did a great job of protecting their rooms. This is something that the North Kansas City School District has trained for, and I know they’ve trained for in the past, and I think it went off like clockwork,” said Capt. Matt Hunter from the Clay County Sheriff’s Office.
Police suspected the man on the roof may have done something to the school’s air conditioning system, or suspect the possibility he may have been looking for copper. As a precaution police and district leaders decided to remove the children from the school.
School leaders were not sure how the man gained access to the roof.
There was a substantial police presence there, including a police helicopter monitoring from above.
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