File image of a row of lockers in a school.
31-year-old Daniel Hollander allegedly trespassed onto Legacy Traditional School in east Tucson during school picture day Thursday morning.
After parents notified school leadership of “an erratic” individual in the school’s parking lot, the school safety officer found Hollander armed with a gun and knife in the school’s gymnasium where students, staff, and faculty were. The suspect was sitting on the floor talking to himself when the school safety officer detained him. Hollander admitted that he intended to harm students, according to officials.
During a late afternoon news conference, TPD Chief Chad Kasmar emphasized the need for officers to be in schools, despite concerns from community members about the school-to-prison pipeline.
“What I can tell you is that’s never been, in the last decade, our strategy here at the Tucson Police Department," he said.
The school safety officer is a Tucson Police veteran, working at Legacy as part of the state‘s grant-funded School Safety Program. That program provides funding to public and charter schools for school resource officers, juvenile probation officers, school counselors, and school social workers on campuses.
“Today we avoided the nightmare of an armed maniac harming innocent people on a school campus," Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne said. "The School Safety Officer who sought out and arrested this suspect deserves the highest praise. His presence on campus is due to funding provided by the School Safety Program managed by my department and demonstrates the value of this program so that incidents like this do not become tragedies.”
Hollander is charged with attempted terrorism, interfering with an educational institution, weapons misconduct on school grounds, and first-degree burglary. He will be held at the Pima County Jail. According to Tucson Police, Hollander was using narcotics for several days.
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