A man in California faces criminal charges after authorities said he pointed a “rifle-type pellet gun” at an elementary school administrator during morning drop-off in an incident that prompted a lockdown and sent worried parents scrambling to pick up their kids.
Vahe Armen, 32, faces charges of assault with a deadly weapon or by means likely to cause great bodily injury on a school employee and weapons on school grounds — grades K-12. He also faces charges of assault on an elder and dissuading a witness from reporting a crime in a separate incident in October, Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón said in a news release.
“The charges we are announcing today represent a terrifying moment when the elementary school administrator was forced to stare down the barrel of what she believed to be an assault rifle,” Gascón said in a news conference on Monday. “This happened in the sacred space where our kids are supposed to feel safe, where parents entrust us with their most precious treasures. We’re lucky that, in this case, the weapon was a pellet gun and not an AR-15, and the defendant didn’t pull the trigger. But we have to remember the invisible scars that persist in the minds and hearts of those with this such horrifying act.”
Vahe Armen, 32, faces charges after he allegedly pointed a gun at an administrator at an elementary school in Los Angeles. (Screenshot via KTLA/YouTube)
It happened on Nov. 16 after 8 a.m. in the school drop-off area as students arrived at Larchmont Charter Elementary School in West Hollywood, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
At 8:35 a.m., the suspect, who had driven through the school parking lot, playing loud music 15 minutes earlier, returned to the parking lot, driving through the school drop-off line. He waited for his turn at the front of the line, exited the vehicle, retrieved a rifle from the vehicle, and pointed it at the victim, authorities said.
A school administrator, who was standing in front of the school, directing traffic and assisting students, allegedly saw Armen exit his vehicle from a distance and point what looked like an assault-style rifle at her. The administrator quickly began to usher the students into the school’s building when Armen allegedly got back into his vehicle and drove away without firing the rifle.
The act, caught on school security camera footage, helped police find Armen and arrest him shortly afterward. In his vehicle, deputies found a weapon.
The incident prompted a lockdown, and notifications went out to parents, telling them to come pick up their kids.
“The images of crying parents and emergency vehicles that we’ve all seen way too many times are indelibly etched into the minds of every parent as they approach school drop off every morning with the small hands of their most treasured,” said Sara Riff, a Larchmont Charter School parent, who joined Gascón at the news conference. “But to respond in real-time to a call of that nature and see that scene at your own school is a living nightmare. I feel so blessed and lucky today that we were the lucky ones who got to take our children home. And for anyone who has seen the video of this man with the gun and imagined that at your own child’s school … it’s unconscionable.”
In a statement, the school said: “It was obviously incredibly scary for everyone involved. We are so thankful to our staff for calmly continuing to lead our students and for activating and following all of the emergency procedures for lockdowns that we regularly train on and practice.”
Armen is being held on $5 million bail with a competency hearing set for Dec. 6, prosecutors said.
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