Man Spotted With Assault Rifle Near Miami-Dade High School

MIAMI, FL — A 23-year-old man was taken into custody Thursday after multiple parents and students reported seeing him on a dirt bike with the barrel of an assault rifle protruding from his bookbag outside a Miami-Dade high school.

The South Dade Senior High School was placed on lockdown for a time as a result of the incident and horrified parents showed up at the school to check on their children.

"We were able to immediately saturate the area around the school and deploy the necessary resources within the school community to insure that our students are safe," Chief Edwin Lopez of the Miami-Dade County Public Schools Police Department told reporters.

Police could be seen in social media posts moving from one classroom to another with guns drawn while students held their arms up in a scene eerily reminiscent of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre.

"This caused frantic fear in approximately 1,000 parents that gathered outside waiting to locate their child," court documents said.

Christian Louis Edinger was charged with improper exhibition of a firearm and interference with an educational institution.

"Exhaustive search produced negative results," Miami-Dade Schools Superintendent Alberto M. Carvalho reported after the lockdown was lifted around 10 a.m. "Students and staff are safe. The school day has resumed as usual."

Miami-Dade police impounded a Colt AR-15 M4 carbine with 49 rounds, a Remington 870 shotgun and a 9 mm Baretta handgun with 50 rounds from Edinger's apartment, according to court documents.

"Edinger was very apologetic for his actions and understood his actions were criminal," court documents said.

Edinger told police he took his assault rifle with him to his brother's home which was east of the high school and was riding home along 288 Street as parents dropped off their children at the school.

The incident occurred days after Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Broward County marked the second anniversary of one of the worst school shootings in America.

Seventeen students and faulty members were killed by a lone gunman with an AR-15 assault rifle in the Valentine's Day attack on the Parkland, Florida school.