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Student arrested with gun at school faces new charge

Police say a witness told them the Stewart Middle student threatened him with the gun at school.

By JAMAL THALJI
Published March 2, 2005

ZEPHYRHILLS - When a .22-caliber revolver was found Feb. 9 in a sixth-grader's backpack at Stewart Middle School, police and school officials said then that the student never threatened anyone.

Now authorities say he did.

The 12-year-old suspect warned another 12-year-old not to tell school officials about the gun, according to police. That student said: "Don't threaten me."

Police said this was the 5-foot-8, 220-pound suspect's reply:

"I'm not," he said. "But if you say anything I'll put a cap in your a--."

It was 12:45 p.m. Both were in class. The suspect then showed the disassembled firearm to the victim, police said, the handle tucked in his shorts, the barrel and cylinder in his backpack.

That new information came to light this week as the 12-year-old was charged Monday with aggravated assault with a firearm.

His mother, Antoinette Woods, was incensed by the new charge and its timing. She said her son was supposed to be released Tuesday from the juvenile detention center, where he was already being held on a charge of possession of a firearm on school property. But the new charge will keep him there.

"When they arrested him the first time we sat down, and they told me it was a good thing he never pulled the gun out and never showed anyone the book bag," she said. "Now all of a sudden they have a witness that he supposedly said verbally about what he would do with the gun.

"Now when it's time for him to get out, now they say there's a witness."

The 12-year-old's identity is being withheld by the St. Petersburg Times because of his age. His mother, whose last name is different from her son's, said he denied the latest allegation by phone.

"He told me, "Mama, that's a story, that's a story,"' Woods said. "I never threatened anyone with a gun.' He said he never heard anything about it."

School officials think it is the first incident with a loaded handgun at a Pasco public school since January 2000, when a 16-year-old Ridgewood High School student was accidentally shot and killed in the parking lot.

In this latest incident, school officials learned of the gun minutes before school let out. An hour after the alleged threat, they brought the student in for a search, found the .22-caliber, eight-shot revolver and arrested the 12-year-old.

At the time, Zephyrhills police Chief Russell Barnes told the Times: "There were never any threats made." Police officials said the suspect did brag to classmates about the gun.

But Zephyrhills police now say the chief was unaware of statements unidentified witnesses made about the threat.

"At the time, he didn't have the report to refer to, and we didn't have the knowledge that any statements were made," Zephyrhills police Capt. Randy Belasic said.

The investigating officer decided to let the Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney's Office decide on the new charge, Belasic said. Police arrest suspects based on probable cause, but when prosecutors launch their own investigation, they requestion witnesses and sort evidence with a higher standard in mind: success at trial.

On Feb. 21, Belasic said, the State Attorney's Office decided to add the aggravated assault with a firearm charge.

Police don't have any evidence that the gun was ever reassembled on campus, Belasic said, nor are they any closer to determining where the 12-year-old got it.

"He said he'd gotten the gun from a friend," Belasic said. "He's never been positively identified."

The child's mother also said she still doesn't know where the weapon came from.

Whatever awaits the 12-year-old in the legal system, the Pasco County school system will take action afterward. One thing, assistant superintendent for administration Bob Dorn said, is already certain:

"He won't return to Stewart Middle School."

[Last modified March 2, 2005, 00:47:18]