Maryland teen prompts lockdown by taking loaded ghost gun to school: cops

A Maryland teen took a loaded ghost gun to his center college, setting off a short lockdown, police mentioned Tuesday.

The 13-year-old scholar, whose identification was not launched, was taken into custody at Isaac J. Gourdine Center College in Fort Washington, Prince George’s County police mentioned in a press release.

Responding cops discovered the boy in a classroom, the place he had a “non-serialized ghost gun” tucked away in his waistband. No college students or college members have been damage.

“The preliminary investigation revealed the 13-year-old scholar confirmed the weapon to different college students this morning, one in every of whom reported it,” police mentioned.

An investigation into the incident is ongoing. Expenses in opposition to the scholar have been pending, police mentioned.

The college was locked down for about 90 minutes when police obtained the report of a scholar with a gun, a Prince George’s County Public Colleges spokeswoman advised the Washington Submit.

College students who noticed the 13-year-old boy with the ghost gun notified college staffers, the spokeswoman mentioned.

So-called “ghost weapons” — firearms with out serial numbers that sometimes can’t be traced — are broadly out there on-line and may be bought by anybody and not using a background verify.

NYPD officers have mentioned they’re nervous in regards to the proliferation of such weapons. The variety of recovered ghost weapons within the metropolis has skyrocketed from 17 in 2018 to 131 between January and April, Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence and Counterterrorism John Miller mentioned final month.

The 131 ghost weapons recovered throughout that timeframe signify a 351 % enhance over the 29 recovered by cops throughout the identical interval in 2021, NYPD statistics present.