Was it a paintball rifle or the real thing? A Miami school wasn’t taking a chance.

In today’s heightened sense of vulnerability and mass shootings we’re coached: “See something, say something.”

Apparently, that’s what one mom did when she saw a man removing what she thought was a rifle out of his trunk near Kinlock Park Elementary School. She has an 11-year-old son at the school who told her his teacher was on the ground shielding students.

Miami police responded to the scene around 1:30 p.m. They closed Flagler Street between Southwest 41st Avenue and Le Jeune Road, set up a media checkpoint, and school officials put Kinlock on lockdown.

According to WPLG Local 10, the unidentified man was pulling out a paintball rifle, a “weapon” used in the sport in which participants shoot dye-filled gelatin capsules at their opponents to eliminate them from the game. Even with protective gear, paintball players emerge with bruises after taking a hit from the paint packets.

But Miami police aren’t calling it a misunderstanding just yet. The information that this was a man with a paintball rifle “is yet to be confirmed,” said Officer Kiara Delva.

“Officers responded to the area ... in references to calls of a male seen in the area wearing a black shirt, with multiple tattoos, armed with a possible rifle,” she said. After establishing a perimeter, the subject who fit the description was detained.

Roads have since reopened.

This story was originally published August 31, 2018 at 4:07 PM.