A man armed with a knife jumped onto the roof of a Chollas View school and prompted a lockdown for two hours Wednesday.
San Diego and school district police patrol cars surrounded Chollas-Mead Elementary on 45th and Market streets.
The vice principal called police at 9:43 a.m. to report a man had entered the school office ranting about his wife and child.
"We think he did have a child, if not children, at the school," San Diego Unified School District spokesperson Shari Winet said.
"Sounds like a pretty isolated, strange case," she said.
The man left the area and the next thing the vice principal knew, the man was up on the roof of the Kindergarten building, armed with a knife.
"We had a lot of police officers here with the school police as well as K-9 units," Winet said.
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Staff followed protocol and locked down rooms.
The armed man moved to another building on campus and that's where he was standing and talking with several uniformed officers.
There were sounds like gunshots during the arrest but police used non-lethal methods, Winet said.
Two hours later, the man was in custody and transported away from the campus by ambulance.
Students were safe and the situation was under control, said Winet who described the event as unfolding "smoothly."
The district notified parents as quickly as they could, Winet said.
However, one woman outside the school was angry about what she considered a lack of information.
“You guys didn’t call us and tell us. Then you guys have us waiting here and tell us ‘We can’t give you no information,’” said the woman. She did not identify herself by told NBC 7 she has three children in the school.
“At the end of the day, give us our kids,” she said.
For those parents who have not stopped at the campus to pick up their children, the students will continue to schedule as normal.
The area of the campus is east of Interstate 805 and south of State Route 94.
No other information was immediately available.
