Oakland Student Arrested For Carrying Shotgun During Anti-Violence Project
OAKLAND (CBS SF) - A well-intentioned but poorly planned effort to make an anti-violence video resulted in a 14-year-old student being arrested on illegal gun charges and two school employees being given misdemeanor citations, Oakland police and school officials said Tuesday.
Police officers thought a real gunfight was going on when concerned citizens notified them that a small group of teenage boys was running around with rifles at Union Point Park on the Embarcadero at 11:30 a.m. Saturday, police spokesman Holly Joshi said.
It turned out that the boys were students from the United for Success Academy and were making an anti-violence video under the supervision of a 50-year-old male teacher and a 25-year-old female counselor, Joshi said.
Most of the guns were replicas, but a 14-year-old boy was carrying a shotgun that he had bought on the street, she said.
The 14-year-old was charged with illegal possession of a rifle and taken to Alameda County Juvenile Hall, and the school employees were issued misdemeanor citations for contributing to the delinquency of a minor, according to Joshi.
Oakland schools spokesman Troy Flint said the school employees "had a lapse in judgment" and have been placed on administrative leave while the incident is being investigated.
Flint said one of the school employees had notified someone from the Oakland Police Department about the video shoot but he admitted that most officers didn't know about the filming and the incident could have turned violent.
"There was a potential for a violent or lethal situation, but fortunately there wasn't a confrontation," Flint said.
Joshi said the students and school employees were cooperative with police.
But she said that if the school employees had notified the Police Department about the filming ahead of time, "no one would have given them permission to run around in a park with rifles."
Flint said the video project was "a well-intentioned effort to highlight problems with violent activity" in the community and was part of an ongoing anti-violence program at United for Success.
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