School Officer Stops Armed Teenager Before He Enters Building

A 16-year-old former student armed with a handgun was stopped before he entered a Daytona Beach high school, local media reported.

A school resource officer (SRO) and an “armed guardian” at Mainland High School confronted the former student, who had fled from a SRO when trying to re-register at the school earlier in April, local TV station WESH reported. The student had been removed from the school in February after being arrested on charges of marijuana possession and vehicle burglary, according to WFTV, an Orlando-based TV station.

Upon being intercepted, the student was searched and a loaded handgun and two magazines were discovered in the waistband of the student’s pants, according to WESH. The school was not placed on lockdown due to the incident.

The student was arrested on an open warrant as a runaway, WFTV reported. He also faces charges of possession of a firearm by a juvenile, possession of a firearm on school property and possession of ammunition on school property.

Possession of firearms and ammunition in a school zone is a violation of 18 USC 922(q), the Gun-Free School Zones Act.

“If there is something, some other side to this story, that’s how I think a good defense lawyer is going to approach this is let’s help to tell that story and let’s help to get this young man maybe some help that he needs,” defense attorney Matthew Boomershine told WESH.

Prior to the Feb. 14, 2018, shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglass High School in Parkland, Florida, convicted murderer Nikolas Cruz had been caught with ammunition in his backpack, but was not charged at the federal or state level. Cruz killed 17 people during the attack and was sentenced to life in prison in 2022.

A school resource officer at the school reportedly did not engage Cruz and was among those sued by Andrew Pollack, whose daughter Meadow was among those killed in the 2018 attack. In St. Mary’s County, Maryland, Blaine Gaskill, a school resource officer assigned to Great Mills High School, stopped a school shooting in progess after two people were wounded.

Volusia County Schools and the United States Attorney’s office for the Middle District of Florida did not immediately respond to requests for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.