Boy, 9, Brings Handgun To Sacramento Prep School

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) -- A 9-year-old boy brought an unloaded handgun to school on Tuesday and showed it off to other students, according to Sacramento police.

The Sol Aureus College Preparatory student apparently got the gun from a relative's home.

Another student told their teacher after school was let out, Principal Norm Hernandez was alerted, and he pulled the student out of an after-school program and confiscated the boy's backpack.

He found the unloaded gun inside and called police, who arrested the boy.

"He hadn't made any threats, he wasn't telling people he was going to hurt anybody," Hernandez said. "He was just telling people this is what I have in my bag."

There were 100 kids in the after-school program at the time. According to Hernandez, this has never happened at SAC Prep in the seven years he's been at the Pocket area public charter school, which is a K-8 campus. Hernandez said a letter was being sent home to parents on Wednesday.

"Oh gosh, I didn't even know that," parent Sherry Macias said when told by CBS13. "That's nauseating. That scares me, really it does. You know it's going to come to a point where they're going to have to have metal detectors at schools."

Police say it's unusual to charge a student that young with a crime and the District Attorney's Office told CBS13's Maria Medina that it's extremely unusual to prosecute a child that young.

The student has been expelled.