2 Students Charged After Gun Seized At Ambridge High School
AMBRIDGE (KDKA) – A lockdown at a Beaver County High School was lifted after students spotted a gun in the parking lot.
A pickup truck loaded with four students was headed for Ambridge High School just after 11 a.m.
As they were coming back from vo-tech school, kids on a bus said they saw the student in the passenger seat brandishing a gun and that alarmed them enough to go to school security when they got there.
"We went into lockdown," said Ambridge School District Superintendent Cynthia Zurchin. "All the students were kept in the building."
The student driver was brought to the office.
"He was actually very cooperative," said Nate Smith, the school's resource officer. "He admitted there was a firearm in the vehicle. He let us know where it was."
After talking to the students who were in the truck, police say they learned the passenger in the front seat was doing more than just brandishing.
"They all said he was pointing the gun at their head and waving the gun around and saying, 'Hey, let's play Russian Roulette,'" said Ambridge Police Chief James Mann.
When police questioned him, Chief Mann said, "He proclaimed he didn't know the gun was real, but it in fact is real."
Police test fired it this afternoon, and it works. The student accused of bringing the gun initially told police it was his father's.
"But through the investigation, we learned that he actually purchased the gun and another handgun in Ohio at a yard sale," said Chief Mann.
Once the gun was in the hands of police, the lockdown was lifted, about a half hour in all.
"So, at all times, the students and staff were safe, the gun was never inside the school," said Zurchin.
The superintendent says it's too early to say if the students, both seniors, will be suspended or expelled.
Both students will face juvenile charges for bringing a gun to school and endangering other students.
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