Parent takes teacher hostage inside Southern California elementary school

A parent barricaded himself inside a Southern California elementary school classroom late Tuesday morning, and remains in the room, along with a teacher he took hostage, Riverside Unified School District officials said.

The unidentified man entered the classroom at Castle View Elementary School in Riverside after 11:20 a.m. local time, officials said. Officer Ryan Railsback with the Riverside Police Department told the Los Angeles Times the incident started when the parent, who did not check in at the front office as is district protocol, got into an altercation with the teacher, a woman. A male teacher confronted the parent, and the parent hit him in the face. The parent then entered a classroom and took the female teacher hostage. "He's not responding to our commands to come out so far," Railsback said. Every student was accounted for and evacuated to an area park, where parents were able to pick them up after 1 p.m. No students were injured, officials said.

UPDATE: At around 6 p.m., police officers charged into the classroom and shot the suspect, who later died at an area hospital, NBC Los Angeles reports. The hostage has been identified by her daughter as first grade teacher Linda Montgomery, who is in her 70s and taught at the school for at least two decades. She was not injured during the six-hour standoff.

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