Council Rock Teens face gun charges

From the BCCT.

This is why parents and schools need to be working together. The teachers cannot do it without the parents. The parents cannot do it without the teachers. It's as simple as that.

Teens face gun charges
By: MATT COUGHLIN
The Intelligencer

A 15-year-old Council Rock South sophomore planned to bring a gun to school, threaten or even shoot a teacher and said he had no qualms about hurting anyone who got in his way, according to police.

He and two other 15-year-olds from the Holland section of Northampton hatched two separate sets of plans that involved the same stolen handgun to get what they wanted earlier this week, investigators said. Instead, they face criminal charges.

The boy who planned to intimidate his teacher was upset that she was telling his parents he was doing poorly in class and wanted to change her mind, or if not, shoot her, police said.

The other two planned to use the gun to threaten someone in Middletown, according to police. However, they were arrested before they could find their target.

On Monday, a Middletown resident called 911 to report two suspicious juveniles looking at houses in his neighborhood. Police said they found the two 15-year-olds walking toward the Neshaminy Creek along Brownsville Road near Woodbine Avenue. The two appeared to be casing the homes, though police said they planned to intimidate someone in that neighborhood.

Police said the teens were evasive when questioned. Officers found a stolen Walther P22 concealed in one of the teen's pants and both were arrested. Someone had unsuccessfully tried to scratch the serial numbers off the gun, police said. However, police traced the gun's registration to a man on West Patricia Road in Northampton. He didn't know the gun had been stolen until Middletown police contacted him after the arrests.

The capture of his friends and seizure of the stolen gun foiled the plans of the would-be school shooter, police said. School officials learned about the threats from other students, and the boy was detained until police could take him into custody.

The stolen gun the teen planned to use was never in the school, police said.

But investigators said he did have the gun in his hands at some point before his friends were caught with it Monday. That's why, in addition to charges of making terroristic threats, the teen arrested at Council Rock South is charged with receiving stolen property, possession of an instrument of crime and possession of a firearm by a minor. He remains at the county juvenile detention center in Edison pending a hearing next week.

The two teens arrested by Middletown police Monday also were sent to Edison, where they have been charged with attempted burglary, attempted trespassing, criminal mischief and conspiracy. The one who had the gun at the time of arrest also faces charges of carrying a concealed firearm, a minor carrying a firearm, receiving stolen property and altering the serial numbers on the gun, police said.

March 28, 2009 12:00 AM