Man with pellet gun prompts lockdown of two Marin County schools

Officer holds a BB rifle that was mistaken for the real thing Thursday and prompted the lockdown at two schools in Corte Madera. Officer holds a BB rifle that was mistaken for the real thing Thursday and prompted the lockdown at two schools in Corte Madera. Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Man with pellet gun prompts lockdown of two Marin County schools 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

Two Kentfield schools were briefly put on lockdown Thursday after an employee at a nearby medical office was spotted toting a rifle that turned out to be a pellet gun, officials said.

Law enforcement officers swarmed the area where the man was spotted and placed nearby Marin Catholic High School and Bacich Elementary School on lockdown for at least an hour until they determined there was no threat, officials said.

The scare started at around 11:30 a.m. when the Marin County Sheriff’s Department tweeted that the two school were “on lock down while Central Marin PD is investigating a man with a gun in a medical office on Bon Air” — which is actually within the unincorporated community of Greenbrae. Shortly afterward, the office tweeted that it was assisting the police agency on the report of a man with a rifle.

But minutes later they determined that there was “NO threat to public or school students” after they contacted the individual with the pellet gun.

Hamed Aleaziz is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: haleaziz@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @haleaziz