9-year-old being charged with bringing gun to Arizona school

QUEEN CREEK, Ariz. (AP) — Pinal County authorities said Monday that they are bringing felony charges against a 9-year-old student who brought a loaded gun to school in August.

County Attorney Kent Volkmer said his office is charging the boy with being a minor in possession of a firearm and interfering with or disruption of an educational institution.

According to court documents, the student took a gun to Legacy Traditional Academy on Aug. 25 and there were 16 rounds of ammunition in the magazine.

The boy told authorities he put the weapon in his backpack for protection from some older kids who were bothering him on his way to school, according to Phoenix TV station ABC15.

The boy’s name hasn’t been released because he’s a juvenile.

He told Queen Creek police that he brought the gun to school one day, left it in his backpack overnight and got caught with it at school the next day.

Police said the boy’s mother told officers that the gun was kept in the top drawer of a dresser in their home and away from her young son.

In a statement, Volkmer said his office concluded “there was no reasonable likelihood of conviction against the juvenile’s parents for any crime but prosecutors took the incident seriously “given the inherent danger involved with a gun being on a school campus.”