Colorado student arrested for bringing "very realistic" toy gun to school

A 16-year-old high school student was arrested by police Friday morning in Commerce City after officers responded to the school on a report of a student with a gun. 

Commerce City Police Department officers confronted the student at Lester Arnold High School and found an Airsoft gun "on his person," CCPD stated in press release. Airsoft is a brand of toy gun which fires plastic pellets via a compressed spring. 

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The department clarified that the student does not appear to have threatened to use the gun or threatened anyone with it. 

Still, the student faces three misdemeanor charges - Unlawfully Concealing a Weapon, Disturbing Lawful Assembly- Educational Institutions, and Possession of an Illegal Weapon - for bringing the "very realistic looking" gun onto school grounds, CCPD explained. 

CCPD received a report of a student with a gun at the school at 10 a.m., but the agency did not state what type of report it received, or how it was received. 

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CCPD also stated it no longer contracts with Adams County School District 14 to provide school resource officers. In a 2019 press release, the department described the hiring of additional staff to serve as SROs in Adams 14 and the Brighton School District 27J. That year, one of CCPD's veteran officers was named SRO of the Year by a state association. 

A CCPD spokesperson told CBS News Colorado that Adams 14 ended its SRO contract with the department about a year and a half ago.