MAN ARRESTED IN STEALING OF SON AT GUNPOINT : SUSPECT WENT TO DAUGHTER'S SCHOOL.

Byline: Bhavna Mistry Daily News Staff Writer

A San Fernando man took his 4-year-old son from the boy's mother at gunpoint in the Antelope Valley Courthouse parking lot, then was arrested when he went to his daughter's school, sheriff's deputies said.

Jeff Armstead, 30, pointed a shotgun at his ex-girlfriend and threatened to kill her Tuesday morning outside the courthouse, where she had come to finalize a restraining order against him, then took his son and said he was going to get his daughter, deputies said.

``He said he was going to kill me,'' said Josman Calloway, 30, of Palmdale, who had lived with Armstead on and off for nine years. ``He just threw his son in the car and pointed a gun at me.''

When deputies arrived at Chaparral Elementary School in Palmdale, they found Armstead's car sitting in the parking lot. Armstead was in the school office, where he had gone to ask to see his 7-year-old daughter, a second-grader there.

``He acted responsively, very nice,'' said Norman Estrada, vice principal. ``I asked him to come to my office and he cooperated. He said he hadn't seen his daughter in a while and so I took him to the cafeteria where his daughter was and we came back to the office, where they finished their lunch.''

Estrada told him that the school already had received a call from his ex-girlfriend and that she had asked that they not release his daughter to him. Deputies took Armstead into custody without incident in Estrada's office.

Deputies said they found no shotgun when they arrested Armstead, although they found shotgun shells in his car. Armstead's son, who was with him in the office, was turned over to his mother.

Armstead is being held at the Lancaster station on suspicion of felony child stealing and assault with a deadly weapon in lieu of $50,000 bail, deputies said.