Armed man arrested on campus of Arizona charter school

PHOENIX — An armed man was arrested on the campus of an Arizona charter school on Thursday morning, authorities said.

An employee at Legacy Traditional School notified a school safety officer (SSO) that a man was behaving erratically in the parking lot just after 9 a.m., according to the Tucson Police Department.

The campus, which serves K-6 students, is located at 9290 E. Golf Links Road in east Tucson.

The uniformed SSO approached the man’s vehicle, but he already had entered the school through an open gate.

Where did officer find armed man?

The officer found the suspect, identified later as 31-year-old Daniel Hollander, sitting and talking to himself in the school’s gymnasium, which was occupied by students and staff.

After Hollander was detained without incident, he was found to be in possession of a loaded handgun and a knife, police said.

Hollander was booked into prison on counts of attempted terrorism, interfering with an educational institution, weapons misconduct on school grounds and burglary.

The SSO is a specially trained Tucson Police Department officer working at the public charter school as part of a program funded by the Arizona Department of Education.

“Today we avoided the nightmare of an armed maniac harming innocent people on a school campus. The school safety officer who sought out and arrested this suspect deserves the highest praise,” Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne said in a press release.

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