Man openly carrying rifle causes concern among Far East El Paso residents

EL PASO, Texas -- Residents in Far East El Paso say they were on edge Thursday after they saw a man walking down the Joe Battle area, openly carrying a rifle, and wearing tactical gear.

The ensuing panic prompted El Paso Police to send out multiple tweets to reassure residents that the department was aware of the man with the gun and were monitoring the situation.

The tweets did not ease fear for everyone.

“This is not right,” said Maria Sanchez, a retired school teacher. "The police department should answer to all of this. There’s a lot of families out there that are now worried about their kids. i would be scared.”

Elvira Aguilar has two kids at Montwood Middle School. She called police when she heard about the man with the gun, but when she called the school, she was told they were on a secure protocol.

“We were told not to worry about it but I’m still worried,” Aguilar said. “There’s something called secure, which means the kids are all brought inside and business as usual, but then I was told you can’t come pick up your kids right now.”

For both Sanchez and Aguilar, the images of the man brought back memories of Aug. 3, 2019 and school shootings, like Uvalde.

ABC-7 reached out to police to get information on how they were monitoring the situation but didn’t get a response.