TUCSON -- The barricade situation at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base was resolved late Friday afternoon, and authorities have reopened the base.
Base officials reported shortly before 5 p.m. they have terminated their response to the security situation, but they did not elaborate on details.
The base was placed on lockdown Friday after an armed civilian got on to the base and holed himself up in a room on the second floor of a building known as the "Old Dorm," a source told The Arizona Republic.
The source said the man took no hostages and has fired no shots. Authorities were negotiating with the man, with SWAT teams in position.
Late afternoon, base officials were coordinating on an orderly way for parents to pick up children who attend school on the base. Parents who live off-base were directed to enter the base through the Wilmot Gate, where base personnel would be on hand to direct traffic.
Earlier in the day, at an impromptu press conference at 12:40 p.m., base spokesman Sgt. Russ Martin said there was an unconfirmed spotting of someone carrying "something that looked like it might have been a weapon" near an old dormitory now being used by a civil engineering squadron.
Martin said rescue vehicles seen entering the base were part of the crisis response put into action when the base was put on lockdown. In what he called "bad timing," he said an ambulance that left the base during the lockdown was carrying a pregnant woman.
Ron Barber, who was on the base Friday morning for a commemoration ceremony for POWs and MIAs, left the base as the lockdown started at 10 a.m. Security directed traffic off the grounds of the base.
He said officials did not say why they were locking down the base.
Barber is U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' district director. He was shot in the face and leg during the January mass shooting at a Tucson Safeway.
The Pima Air & Space Museum south of the base remains open, but public tours that it does on the base have been canceled, officials said.
At least two schools, Borman Elementary of Tucson Unified School District and Sonoran Science Academy, were put on lockdown.
Air Force Staff Sgt. Caitlin Jones said she couldn't confirm details, but said the base has been "reduced to a single point entry because of a potential security situation," and officials were investigating.
Davis-Monthan Air Force Base is hosted by the 355 Fighter Wing and home to six squadrons, with more than 6,000 Airmen and 1,700 civilian personnel. It is located within the city limits of Tucson, about 5 miles east of the downtown area. It was established in 1925.
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http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2011/09/16/20110916arizona-base--on-lockdown-davis-monthan.html#ixzz1YAHHANOH
