Police: Loaded Gun Found In Brooklyn Student's Backpack On First Day Of School
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) - A 15-year-old boy was charged as a juvenile late Thursday after allegedly bringing a loaded gun to the first day of school in New York City.
As CBS2's Sonia Rincon reported, parents, students and people who work and live in the area were shocked to learn that a student had found his way into the P.S. K753 School for career development, at 510 Clermont Ave. in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn. The gun was discovered by a metal detector at the school around 8:15 a.m.
The detector went off, and a school safety agent found a loaded .22 caliber pistol in the backpack, police said.
"It was very scary seeing that. -- him bringing a gun to the school," said Claudine Jones, the mother of a freshman at the school.
Jones was bringing her daughter to the school when she heard the metal detector go off and saw the teenage boy being handcuffed on the floor.
"They saw the gun and they locked him up," Jones said. "They had everybody come out the school and stand right there."
Safety agents had put the student's bag through a scanner three times to be sure before they found the loaded gun. Jones said it confirmed her daughter's fears about attending the alternative school.
"She didn't want to come to the school, because she wasn't safe" Jones said. "She didn't feel safe."
Students here say it's more disappointing than scary.
"It's the first day," said student Mercedes Cameron. "It's supposed to be a new start; a new beginning."
"It's not safe," said student Brian Mendes, who added that he was afraid it would happen again.
Deborah Burgess was bringing her grandson, and said she was impressed with the way safety agents handled the incident.
"You're dealing with children with special needs, so you do expect some things to happen," Burgess said. "But like I said, it seemed like they have everything under control in there."
But she and others worried about safety at the school were wondering what that 15-year-old boy was thinking.
"I thought he was very stupid to even try to come into a school with a loaded gun," Burgess said.
Kissena Jones, who works in an office in the building across the street from the school, said it's hard to believe someone would come to school with a gun on the very first day of classes.
"I'm scared and we've got to work here. We want to be safe, so we want to know what's going on," Jones said. "People work here, people go to school here, people live around here, so we want to be safe."
Marcus Similton also expressed disappointment at the situation.
"Especially on the first day," Similton said. "It doesn't even matter what day it is -- it shouldn't be done at all. But it's like, now he doesn't even have the opportunity to get his education; go through the whole school year."
Jonathan said the student had to know he would be caught.
"He knew that there's metal detectors, even when he first interviewed at school. I guess he wanted to show off," he told 1010 WINS' Al Jones.
Mayor Bill de Blasio commented late Thursday on the incident, WCBS 880's Peter Haskell reported.
"I'm very unhappy that that young person did that today," de Blasio said. "He will certainly suffer the consequences."
Speaking at an unrelated event on Staten Island, Mayor de Blasio said violent crime in schools is down 35 percent over the past five years.
"I am confident that our schools are safe and getting safer," he said.
But the gun was not even the only weapon found in a school on Thursday. Teamsters Local 237 president Gregory Floyd, who represents school safety agents, said knives were found in two other schools in Brooklyn on Thursday.
He said the weapons are three good reasons to keep metal detectors in schools and put them in schools that don't have them.
Floyd also accused de Blasio of downplaying violence in schools.
"Crime goes down because you don't report crime. That's how your crime goes down. But the reality is weapons are coming into our schools every day. This proves it," Floyd said. "This is the first day. We're in for a rough school year if the mayor thinks crime is down."
In a statement -- the Department of Education said: "This incident is deeply troubling and we are working in close partnership with the NYPD as they conduct an investigation. Safety always comes first and there is zero tolerance for weapons of any kind in schools."
De Blasio said the final decision is made by the NYPD, but schools can request or decline scanners.
The boy was charged as a juvenile with criminal possession of a weapon on school grounds, and spent most of the day at the 88th Police Precinct, CBS2's Tracee Carrasco reported. He claimed the book bag belonged to a friend and he was not aware of the gun, police sources told CBS2.
