CROSS LANES, W.Va. -- A Cross Lanes man dropped a gun near an elementary school after first firing in front of his wife and children Thursday morning, police said.

At about 8:30 a.m., Sara Lacy stopped deputies near Kroger in Cross Lanes and said her husband, Gary Arthur Lacy, Jr. had just fired a gun, Kanawha County Sheriff's Cpl. Brian Humphreys said.

Sara Lacy had received a domestic violence petition against her husband earlier that morning in connection to a domestic assault on Sunday. She told deputies she was meeting her husband in the Kroger parking lot so he could tell their two children he loved them.

Sara Lacy said she fled with her children after spotting a gun in Gary Lacy's jacket pocket. He allegedly pulled out the gun and fired it once into the air as she drove away. He got in his car and drove up Big Tyler Road to hide the weapon, Humphreys said.

Around the same time, Humphreys said a parent stopped a deputy near Point Harmony Elementary School and said she watched as a man dropped something out of his window while driving through the school zone.

The deputy then found a fired .380 semiautomatic pistol on an embankment across from the school, Humphreys said. Deputies also found one bullet shell casing on the parking lot.

Deputies later arrested Gary Lacy without incident and charged him with felony wanton endangerment. He was also charged with misdemeanor domestic assault in connection to Sunday's incident.

Lacy is currently being held in South Central Regional Jail in lieu of a $27,000 bail.