KID CAUGHT WITH LOADED HANDGUN IN ST MARY’S ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
PARK HALL, MD. – Show and tell nearly became deadly at Park Hall Elementary School when another gun was brought to school by a child in St. Mary’s County. With no metal detectors or secure entrances at St. Mary’s County Public Schools, the safety and security of the students was dependent upon the tip from a fellow student about the gun that was in a book bag.
Police say that on April 18, 2018, deputies and detectives from the St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Office, along with Special Agents from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, (NCIS), responded to Park Hall Elementary School located on Point Lookout Road, in Park Hall, Md., for the report of a student with a handgun.
St. Mary’s Sheriff Tim Cameron reports that deputies learned from school officials that a student alerted a staff member that another student was in possession of a handgun. The school staff member inspected the 8-year-old kid’s book bag and found the loaded semi-automatic handgun that the child said he found at his home.
The child lives in a Navy off-base housing community located on Willows Road which is close to the Patuxent River Naval Air Station where both parents are attached as active duty service members.
Sheriff Cameron reports that the student was placed under arrest and charged as a juvenile with the following criminal offenses:
. Dangerous Weapon on School Property
. Handgun on Person
. Disturbing School Operations
Police say that the Naval Criminal Investigative Service to determine how the student had access to the gun. Charges can be brought against the parents for failing to secure the gun from access by the child.
The incident follows the fatal shooting of Jaelynn Willey by Austin Wyatt Rollins who brought a gun to Great Mills High School on March 20, 2018 and shot her in the head leaving her on life support for two days until she died.
The gunshot fired by Rollins also struck another student, Desmond Barnes. Police say that Deputy First Class Blaine Gaskill a school resource officer confronted Rollins and both he and the student fired at the same time, with the deputy hitting the gun in Rollins’ hand and Rollins’ shot hitting himself in the head and leading to his death about two hours later.
In spite of $30 million in a rainy day fund held by the St. Mary’s County Commissioners, there is no plan by the county to fund metal detectors for the public schools. St. Mary’s County has $10 million in the capital budget for a sports complex that includes four artificial turf fields.
St. Mary’s County Commissioner President Randy Guy told WUSA9 reporter Bruce Johnson when interviewed the day of the Great Mills High murder that the county didn’t have the money for metal detectors.
PARENTS CALLED FOR METAL DETECTORS IN 2014 AFTER THREAT OF ARMED STUDENT IN GREAT MILLS HIGH SCHOOL
Two Leonardtown High School students were arrested for making threats of mass violence after they boasted about being able to do a better job of shooting fellow students than the mentally ill Nikolas Cruz did in killing 17 fellow students at Parkland High School in Florida.
The Leonardtown students had numerous guns in their home when police executed a search warrant and David Fairfax, the father of one of the students was charged with allowing his home-based gun business to be open and available to his teenage sons, to allow them to access as well with guns in their bedrooms.
Two arrests have been made in reference to this investigation; two male juveniles ages 15 and 16, of Leonardtown, were charged with Threat of Mass Violence, and a warrant has been issued for David William Fairfax, age 39, of 23258 Jenifer Court, Leonardtown, for the following charges; two counts of Reckless Endangerment, one count of Access to a Firearm by a Minor, and one count of Illegal Transfer of a Firearm.
Dave Fairfax lists on his Facebook page that he is the COO of F4 Defense and works for the U.S. Navy at Patuxent River NAS. He has been identified as the father of one of the teens arrested and charged with threats of mass murder.
Fairfax is represented by Leonardtown attorney Keven J. McDevitt.
St. Mary’s States Attorney Richard Fritz agreed to a plea deal for a Leonardtown High School student who stomped a fellow student repeatedly about the head and body as the victim attempted to break up a brawl at the school in December. The defendant had moved to St. Mary’s after being charged with the vicious beating and carjacking of an elderly woman in Delaware a year earlier.
The beating at Leonardtown was captured on video by other students.
Criminal background checks are required for school system staff, officials and even school board members, but not for students transferring to the public schools from elsewhere.