Police say students sold guns at school www.privateofficer.com
Posted by privateofficernews on April 12, 2008
Police say students sold guns at schools www.privateofficer.com
from the Washington Post
Kensington MD. April 12 2008
Police charged five Montgomery County teens and one adult yesterday with being linked to what authorities said was a scheme to steal guns from a student’s home and sell them to classmates, a sale broken up when a 14-year-old potential customer accidentally fired a bullet into the wall of a restroom stall.
The gunshot, at lunchtime Wednesday, jolted the Albert Einstein High School community in Kensington, a campus with some of the premiere academic offerings in southern Montgomery County and one of the most diverse student populations in Maryland.
It also revealed divisions within the student and parent community on such basic issues as whether the school is safe to attend. About 75 students staged a dramatic midday demonstration against handgun violence along the school’s central hallway, shuffling chairs to mimic the movement of a train and chanting, “No more guns.” Other students elected to stay home out of fear.
“The school is a time bomb waiting to happen,” said Vanessa Johnson, mother of two Einstein students. Johnson sent them to school only after being told by a receptionist that they could not be excused.
Students reported entire rows of empty desks yesterday. Principal James Fernandez said he did not know the full extent of absenteeism.
But some parents sent their children back without a second thought. “I never for a moment worried that my daughter was in danger,” said Kelly Giblin of Kensington, who leads the PTSA.
Reaction was as diverse as the school itself, whose service area includes parts of Kensington, Silver Spring and Wheaton. It ranks second among Montgomery’s 25 high schools in terms of students living in poverty: Two-thirds have received federal meal subsidies at some point. The student population is 41 percent Hispanic, 24 percent black, 23 percent white and 12 percent Asian.
School officials and police shut down the campus for much of Wednesday afternoon, pulled suspects from classrooms one by one, plucked the spent bullet from the bathroom wall and traced the weapons — a .45-caliber handgun, a .22-caliber handgun and a .38 special — to a book bag in a student’s locker. More than 50 school employees worked late to search the campus for additional contraband. None was found.
Police said tensions among students rose late last week after a fight outside the school. Students said the fight took place at Newport Mill Park, adjacent to the school. The principal said the fight started between an Einstein student and a former student. Students said it escalated to a larger conflict that broke along racial lines.
A law enforcement source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the case involves juveniles, said the fight involved rival gangs. One of the gangs was a subset of Mara Salvatrucha, the Latino gang known as MS-13, and the other was an African American gang, the source said.
Reached last night, a police spokesman couldn’t immediately confirm what gangs were involved but said the fight involved “some gang members.”
Last weekend, a 15-year-old Einstein student and his girlfriend, also 15, plotted to steal guns kept under lock and key by her family, police said. They said she knew where the key was hidden and left a window open. Police said the boyfriend took four guns, knives and jewelry. Their purpose, police said, was to make money.
The boy brought three guns to a second-floor boys’ bathroom Wednesday to show them to potential buyers, police said. One potential customer, a 14-year-old, took a pistol into a stall, examined it and accidentally fired it. The boys dispersed.
Police said everyone involved in the transaction has ties to gangs or has acquaintances who are gang members.
Jose Ramos, 16, and Geovani Lazabara, 17, both of Silver Spring, were charged as adults with participating in an illegal sale of a regulated firearm and other offenses. Authorities said the two were prospective buyers in the abandoned sale. In court, Assistant State’s Attorney Jeffrey Wennar called Lazabara a “validated gang member.” They were held on $100,000 bond each.
Jose Ramos’s father, Cesar, a construction worker from El Salvador, said his son is no gang member.
“He’s a good boy,” the elder Ramos said from the family home. “I don’t know what happened at the school. The authorities haven’t let me talk to him. He pays attention to us, he loves us. He gives us hugs every day.”
Luis F. Gomez Jr., attorney for Lazabara, said his client “maintains his innocence, absolutely, at his point.” Gomez said Lazabara’s parents would have trouble raising money to pay the bond. Lazabara’s mother is a housekeeper, and his stepfather is contractor.
Police said that a fourth stolen weapon was traced to another potential customer, 20-year-old Raul Garcia, who was charged with handgun violations and conspiracy to break in and steal. Authorities said Garcia helped line up potential customers for the firearms.
The 15-year-old boyfriend and girlfriend alleged to have stolen the guns were charged as juveniles, as was the 14-year-old alleged to have fired the shot. The students, all from Silver Spring, were charged with either burglary or handgun offenses.
Police said another suspect, 16-year-old from Silver Spring, has not been charged. His role remains under investigation.
Fernandez said yesterday he is “99 percent positive” the gun transaction was not related to Friday’s fight. “To the best of my knowledge, I don’t think these kids have been in trouble before,” he said of the suspects. The 14-year-old freshman who fired the gun, he said, plays on the school baseball team.
The investigation began when several Einstein students told school security officers they had heard a loud noise coming from the bathroom. Security officers worked on the case for more than an hour before alerting the principal.
Immediately after being told just after 1 p.m., Fernandez put the school in Code Blue, a state of heightened alert. Ten minutes later, when it was confirmed that a gun had been fired, he upgraded to Code Red, full lockdown.
Investigators turned to the school’s security cameras, which yield images “so good,” Fernandez said, “it’s as plain as me sitting across the desk from you.” The images led investigators to the suspects, and Fernandez pulled them from their classes, so as not to alarm classmates. Police arrested and searched the students in the hallway.
Police learned the location of the weapons after talking to suspects.
Speaking on the public address system yesterday, Fernandez told students that some of them had clearly let the school down. “Sadly, it seems that several people knew the weapons were in school and endangered us all by not telling someone what they knew,” he said.
The school will hold a spirit day today and a community meeting at 7 p.m. Monday to seek input on safety concerns.
Einstein has no metal detectors, and parents are divided on whether they should be installed. “I think metal detectors are only going to address a larger problem, and that is disenfranchised kids,” said Giblin, the PTSA leader.
Aishah Striggles of Silver Spring, whose niece attends Einstein, takes another view. “This is what they do in D.C.,” she said, alluding to the magnetometers in the city’s high schools. “And to me, Wheaton is as urban as D.C. I mean, we have to be real about these things.”
Kensington MD. April 12 2008
Police charged five Montgomery County teens and one adult yesterday with being linked to what authorities said was a scheme to steal guns from a student’s home and sell them to classmates, a sale broken up when a 14-year-old potential customer accidentally fired a bullet into the wall of a restroom stall.
The gunshot, at lunchtime Wednesday, jolted the Albert Einstein High School community in Kensington, a campus with some of the premiere academic offerings in southern Montgomery County and one of the most diverse student populations in Maryland.
It also revealed divisions within the student and parent community on such basic issues as whether the school is safe to attend. About 75 students staged a dramatic midday demonstration against handgun violence along the school’s central hallway, shuffling chairs to mimic the movement of a train and chanting, “No more guns.” Other students elected to stay home out of fear.
“The school is a time bomb waiting to happen,” said Vanessa Johnson, mother of two Einstein students. Johnson sent them to school only after being told by a receptionist that they could not be excused.
Students reported entire rows of empty desks yesterday. Principal James Fernandez said he did not know the full extent of absenteeism.
But some parents sent their children back without a second thought. “I never for a moment worried that my daughter was in danger,” said Kelly Giblin of Kensington, who leads the PTSA.
Reaction was as diverse as the school itself, whose service area includes parts of Kensington, Silver Spring and Wheaton. It ranks second among Montgomery’s 25 high schools in terms of students living in poverty: Two-thirds have received federal meal subsidies at some point. The student population is 41 percent Hispanic, 24 percent black, 23 percent white and 12 percent Asian.
School officials and police shut down the campus for much of Wednesday afternoon, pulled suspects from classrooms one by one, plucked the spent bullet from the bathroom wall and traced the weapons — a .45-caliber handgun, a .22-caliber handgun and a .38 special — to a book bag in a student’s locker. More than 50 school employees worked late to search the campus for additional contraband. None was found.
Police said tensions among students rose late last week after a fight outside the school. Students said the fight took place at Newport Mill Park, adjacent to the school. The principal said the fight started between an Einstein student and a former student. Students said it escalated to a larger conflict that broke along racial lines.
A law enforcement source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the case involves juveniles, said the fight involved rival gangs. One of the gangs was a subset of Mara Salvatrucha, the Latino gang known as MS-13, and the other was an African American gang, the source said.
Reached last night, a police spokesman couldn’t immediately confirm what gangs were involved but said the fight involved “some gang members.”
Last weekend, a 15-year-old Einstein student and his girlfriend, also 15, plotted to steal guns kept under lock and key by her family, police said. They said she knew where the key was hidden and left a window open. Police said the boyfriend took four guns, knives and jewelry. Their purpose, police said, was to make money.
The boy brought three guns to a second-floor boys’ bathroom Wednesday to show them to potential buyers, police said. One potential customer, a 14-year-old, took a pistol into a stall, examined it and accidentally fired it. The boys dispersed.
Police said everyone involved in the transaction has ties to gangs or has acquaintances who are gang members.
Jose Ramos, 16, and Geovani Lazabara, 17, both of Silver Spring, were charged as adults with participating in an illegal sale of a regulated firearm and other offenses. Authorities said the two were prospective buyers in the abandoned sale. In court, Assistant State’s Attorney Jeffrey Wennar called Lazabara a “validated gang member.” They were held on $100,000 bond each.
Jose Ramos’s father, Cesar, a construction worker from El Salvador, said his son is no gang member.
“He’s a good boy,” the elder Ramos said from the family home. “I don’t know what happened at the school. The authorities haven’t let me talk to him. He pays attention to us, he loves us. He gives us hugs every day.”
Luis F. Gomez Jr., attorney for Lazabara, said his client “maintains his innocence, absolutely, at his point.” Gomez said Lazabara’s parents would have trouble raising money to pay the bond. Lazabara’s mother is a housekeeper, and his stepfather is contractor.
Police said that a fourth stolen weapon was traced to another potential customer, 20-year-old Raul Garcia, who was charged with handgun violations and conspiracy to break in and steal. Authorities said Garcia helped line up potential customers for the firearms.
The 15-year-old boyfriend and girlfriend alleged to have stolen the guns were charged as juveniles, as was the 14-year-old alleged to have fired the shot. The students, all from Silver Spring, were charged with either burglary or handgun offenses.
Police said another suspect, 16-year-old from Silver Spring, has not been charged. His role remains under investigation.
Fernandez said yesterday he is “99 percent positive” the gun transaction was not related to Friday’s fight. “To the best of my knowledge, I don’t think these kids have been in trouble before,” he said of the suspects. The 14-year-old freshman who fired the gun, he said, plays on the school baseball team.
The investigation began when several Einstein students told school security officers they had heard a loud noise coming from the bathroom. Security officers worked on the case for more than an hour before alerting the principal.
Immediately after being told just after 1 p.m., Fernandez put the school in Code Blue, a state of heightened alert. Ten minutes later, when it was confirmed that a gun had been fired, he upgraded to Code Red, full lockdown.
Investigators turned to the school’s security cameras, which yield images “so good,” Fernandez said, “it’s as plain as me sitting across the desk from you.” The images led investigators to the suspects, and Fernandez pulled them from their classes, so as not to alarm classmates. Police arrested and searched the students in the hallway.
Police learned the location of the weapons after talking to suspects.
Speaking on the public address system yesterday, Fernandez told students that some of them had clearly let the school down. “Sadly, it seems that several people knew the weapons were in school and endangered us all by not telling someone what they knew,” he said.
The school will hold a spirit day today and a community meeting at 7 p.m. Monday to seek input on safety concerns.
Einstein has no metal detectors, and parents are divided on whether they should be installed. “I think metal detectors are only going to address a larger problem, and that is disenfranchised kids,” said Giblin, the PTSA leader.
Aishah Striggles of Silver Spring, whose niece attends Einstein, takes another view. “This is what they do in D.C.,” she said, alluding to the magnetometers in the city’s high schools. “And to me, Wheaton is as urban as D.C. I mean, we have to be real about these things.”
