A 4-year-old took a loaded handgun to his South Texas elementary school on Wednesday, and the child’s father has been arrested after the incident prompted a lockdown.
School administrators at John F. Kennedy Elementary School in Corpus Christi learned a student had a weapon on campus around 9 a.m. and quickly implemented lockdown procedures, according to a letter sent to parents from West Oso Independent School District Superintendent Conrado Garcia.
An off-duty Corpus Christi police officer providing security at the campus was called in around 9:15 a.m. and secured the weapon without incident. The school district relies on the Corpus Christi Police Department for security.
Police said officers went to the child’s home to investigate and identified the child’s parents as the gun owner. Paul Torres, 30, was arrested and charged with making a firearm accessible to children and endangering a child.
Conviction on the latter charge carries a maximum punishment of up to two years in prison, police said. Torres was booked into the Nueces County Jail Wednesday evening, and bond information was not immediately available.
Police did not specify the type of gun brought to the school.
“While we do not believe that students and staff were in any kind of imminent danger, as a precaution, the campus had increased police presence and maintained a higher level of security at the school until the Corpus Christi Police Department gave us an ‘all clear’ at 10:30 a.m.,” Garcia said in the letter to parents.
District administrators and the superintendent “responded immediately and arrived on campus to assist with monitoring this lockdown,” Garcia wrote in the letter.
Corpus Christi police urged gun owners to ensure their weapons are properly secured and to check them frequently.
“We recommend that all guns are unloaded, trigger locked, and in a locked gun safe, or pistol box with the ammunition locked away separately,” police said in a news release. “Keys for the guns and ammunition should be located out of reach of children, away from the weapons and ammunition.”
Not much of a story explaining how the kid was able to get his hands on the gun. The most bizarre of comments come from the police spokesman. If a gun owner does as the police say, and “trigger lock, encase and keep the gun out of reach” of kids. If the owner needs that gun quickly to defend himself, family, others and property, where will he find the time to retrieve their gun, when violent crimes happens in seconds. I would just keep the gun out of reach and hidden.
Agree….another point,, interesting that a 4 year old could leave home with a gun….was it in his backpack?? If so,, I guess these parents doesn’t check their 4 year old b4 leaving home….this could be a ploy by the liberals that are trying to take our guns…ijs
“this could be a ploy by liberals”??? How paranoid can you be? The kid’s stupid daddy is just another member of our non-existent “well-regulated militia”.
I agree. Don’t understand why everything has to be a liberal vs conservative fight. I, as a liberal don’t give a crap about how many guns they own. The issue here is about responsibility. I wish so called “conservatives” would place the blame where it properly belongs instead of spreading so much hate and disinformation. But I was always told “you can’t be rational with an irrational person!”
Corpus Christi kids start school at 4? Most start kindergarten at 5.