PARADISE, Texas — A convicted felon who brought a rifle onto a school campus Wednesday afternoon was found hours later wedged in between two concrete walls, according to police.
That man was later identified as Elvin Fox. Police say he lives a few blocks away from campus.
Around 4 p.m. Wednesday, a person called 911 after seeing Fox walking across the school campus with a gun, say Wise County Sheriff's deputies.
Officers from multiple departments responded within minutes. After searching for hours, one officer noticed debris on the floor, then looked up and noticed a ceiling tile had been moved.
Officers later found Fox wedged in a crawl space. Fire and rescue had to break the wall to get him out and found a loaded .22 shotgun and several rounds in the wall with him.
No one was seriously hurt.
Wise County Sheriff Lane Akin said, Fox should never have had the gun in the first place, because he was a convicted felon. Relatives told investigators, Fox had recently stopped taking medication for an undisclosed mental illness.
Officers arrested Fox and took him to a secure mental health treatment facility, where he is awaiting a number of criminal charges.
"Fox at one point said that he thought people were following him,” Akin said, after the arrest.
Parent Tonya McFadden told WFAA he never should have made it inside the school in the first place.
“It’s really serious,” McFadden said. “School hasn’t even started and there’s somebody running around with a gun around the school.”
Dr. Paul Uttley, Paradise ISD superintendent, said he understands parents concerns, but the staff followed procedure by keeping the kids in a secure location until the threat cleared.
“While there is no place that you can feel 100 percent safe, we put our procedures in place and it worked,” Uttley tells WFAA.
The district pledged to continue finding new and better ways to keep kids safe.
“We will evaluate our strengths, what we did very well but then we also have to look at how we can improve, Uttley said.
The district is offering counseling services to students and staff.
Fox is likely to face a number of criminal charges including aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in a safe zone and felon in possession of firearm, Akin said.
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