Arrest made in gun incident that led to Phoenix-area high school lockdown
Dec 6, 2018, 4:05 PM
(Google Street View)
(Google Street View)
PHOENIX – Police arrested a teenager believed to be responsible for a gun incident that led to the lockdown of a Phoenix-area high school Wednesday.
The 15-year-old boy was taken into custody Wednesday afternoon for having a gun on a Verrado High School bus, the Buckeye Police Department said Thursday.
That morning at around 9:40 a.m., two students told school administrators a boy on their bus had a gun that he and others were handling, police said.
Buckeye Police put the school on lockdown and searched the campus and interviewed students believed to have been involved, but no weapon was found.
LOCKOUT LIFTED ALL STUDENTS SAFE: The lockout of Verrado is lifted. An extensive search and a number of interviews with students turned up no weapon after reports that a student may have brought a gun to school. Extra Buckeye officers will stay on campus for the rest of the day.
— Buckeye Police Dept (@BuckeyePolice) December 5, 2018
The lockout was lifted around noon.
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Investigators learned that the suspect was on campus for a brief time but left on foot.
Officers found the boy, who said he is from Phoenix but had been staying at an abandoned home near Buckeye, police said. He admitted to stealing the gun from a vehicle.
He said he discarded the gun after leaving campus, but police couldn’t find the weapon after searching the area.
The boy was turned over to the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office to be booked for felony burglary.
Buckeye police was continuing to investigate and was considering charges of interfering with an educational institution.
An additional presence was planned for the school Thursday and Friday.
