A handgun was found in the backpack of a seven-year-old student at a public elementary school in Queens, New York City officials said, leading to a tense few hours as the school was placed on lockdown while the police made sure there was no danger. It remained unclear how the gun, a .22-caliber semiautomatic pistol, ended up in the boy’s backpack. The police said that a magazine, separated from the pistol but loaded with ten bullets, and a plastic bag with seven to ten additional rounds of ammunition were also found in the boy’s bag. Officials had yet to determine whether there was a bullet in the gun’s chamber, Paul J. Browne, the Police Department’s chief spokesman, said, but the weapon was not fired. “The question of whether the child saw” the gun and ammunition “and put it in his backpack, or an older brother hid it there, is still under investigation,” Browne said.
The boy, a second grader, arrived at Wave Preparatory Elementary School in Far Rockaway about 7:30 a.m. About two hours later, the boy’s mother learned that he had the gun and she raced to the school. She told administrators that she needed to take him out of school for a dentist appointment, Browne said. “Initially, it would appear that her intention was just to get the gun back and get it out of the school,” he said.
But after the mother asked her son if he had a gun in his bag, he told her that he had given the weapon to a classmate, prompting her to alert the principal. The school was placed on lockdown just after 10 a.m., Browne said.
Two school safety officers assigned to Wave Preparatory went to a second-floor classroom and found the other student. Upon searching his bag, the officers found a flare gun, but not the .22-caliber pistol, which they discovered moments later in the first child’s backpack, along with the ammunition and loaded gun clip, Browne said. The police believe that the flare gun, which was unloaded, may also have come from the first boy’s home.
Investigators were trying to determine exactly how the pistol ended up in the boy’s backpack and how his mother learned it was there. Browne said that whether the boy’s mother would face charges was “still under review". The boy has two older half brothers, ages 21 and 27, Browne said. Afterwards, two police officers stood at the top of the stairs inside an apartment building, listed as the mother’s address, above a barbershop on Cornaga Avenue.
Earlier in the day, students at Wave Preparatory described a nervous few hours that began when the principal went on the intercom to say that the school was being locked down and that they were to remain in their classrooms. “I thought we were going to get killed,” said Javier Ferrufino, an eleven-year-old in fifth grade. “We went to the back of the classroom. I hid with my friend behind some computers.” Officials at the school declined to comment.
The city’s Education Department released a statement confirming that a gun had been found and that the school had been locked down. When parents arrived in the afternoon to pick up their children, more than a dozen police officers were at the school. A notice given to parents said: “Due to an incident today there was need to secure all students in their classrooms. This procedure is called a lockdown. Our school-based support team is prepared to assist you with any emotional needs as a result of today’s lockdown.”
Giovanni Dennis, an eight-year-old third grader, said he hid under his teacher’s desk after the principal announced the lockdown. His mother, Cecelia Dennis, said she was upset that she did not know about the lockdown until she arrived to get Giovanni. “I think they did a good job of locking down the school,” she said. “But they could have notified the parents earlier.”
Lawrence Clark, 49, went to pick up his stepdaughter Shakyla Howard, eight, at 4:15. “I live thirty seconds from the school, and I just found out about this five minutes ago from my brother-in-law’s Facebook page. And he lives in Utica,” Clark said. “This school sends out texts and emails about all this stupid stuff, like parent-teacher conferences. But I didn’t find out about this until just now?” Shakyla said: “They made us turn off the lights and hide behind the teacher’s desk. I almost cried. I was afraid we were going to get shot.”
Rico says there's some serious stupidity at work here...
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