'This is not a warzone:' Two guns found at Baltimore area schools this week, continuing trend
BALTIMORE -- Twice this week, officials said loaded guns were found inside Baltimore area schools.
The first incident, according to officials, was in Baltimore County at Parkville High on Monday. Police say a 14-year-old student was arrested in that incident. A few days later on Thursday, a Baltimore city school official confirmed a student was arrested after allegedly bringing a gun and marijuana to Mergenthaler Vocational-Technical High School, commonly known as Mervo.
Mervo is the same school where student Jeremiah Brogden was gunned down outside the building in September during his first week back to school.
A student at the school told WJZ she's not very afraid, but she's sometimes concerned about her safety.
Her grandfather, Ralph McCaskill said: "You don't want to be a victim of a stray, you don't want to be a victim through gunfire because this is not a war zone. This is a school. So what's the purpose?"
At least six guns have been recovered at Baltimore city schools two and a half months into the school year.
Below is the known list of weapons that have been recovered - data compiled with information from Baltimore School officials and school police officials.
Weapon recovered at:
- Mervo High School on September 2nd - the weapon officials believe was used in Jeremiah Brogden's murder
- ConneXions Community School on September 8th
- Bluford Drew Jemison STEM Academy on October 13th
- Booker T. Washington Middle School on October 19th
- Forest Park High School on October 25th
- Mervo High School on November 10th
In Baltimore County, officials also confirmed the following weapons were recovered at schools:
- Randallstown high on September 15th
- Outside Chesapeake High on September 15th
- Parkville High on November 7th
After the second weapon was found at Mervo on Thursday, Mayor Brandon Scott praised school resource officers and blamed gun makers.
"The prevalence of illegal guns in this city is overwhelming," said Mayor Brandon Scott. "They overwhelmingly come from other states. They overwhelmingly come from outside of the city. "
Mac Hardy with the National Association of School Resource Officers says young people don't feel safe.
"It's an adolescent child, why did he feel the need to bring that gun on campus, there must be some sort of fear," said Hardy. "And it may not be the fear inside the school, it may be leaving his home and getting to the school, that makes him fearful.
Since September, at least 9 teenagers have either been injured or killed in gun violence across the region.
In September, 14-year-old Travis Slaughter was shot and killed in Baltimore County after a high school football game.
And November 10th, Baltimore county police confirmed a teenager was pronounced dead at the hospital after being found with a gunshot wound inside a home on the 4300 block of Tucker Circle in Landsdowne. Police say Homicide detectives are investigating.
