Putnam City HS Student Caught With Loaded Gun In Backpack

There was high security at a football game at Putnam City Original. Putnam City Schools said someone called police claiming a Putnam City West student threatened to shoot someone at the game Thursday night.

In an unrelated incident, a Putnam City High student was caught with a loaded gun at noon Thursday while in class. The student who brought the gun to school is a junior, but he's now in jail thanks to proactive students and their parents.

9/3/15 Related Story: Police Investigate After Student Reportedly Brings Loaded Gun To PC High School

“It was a quiet day at the school,” Putnam City High spokesperson Steve Lindley said.

There were no threats and no warnings, but soon students started calling their parents.

“He told everybody that he had a gun in his backpack,” one student said.

Parents started calling the school, and they all said the same thing.

“There was a student at the school with a gun,” Lindley said. “Our administrators rushed to the class which happened to be a physical education class outside in the stadium.”

They found the boy on the track and took him to the office. They also found the backpack on the east side of the stadium in the bushes.

“He had a handgun that was already loaded, and they found it in his backpack, because somebody told on him,” a student said.

That’s how authorities found the gun.

“On the tip of another student they were able to find a backpack that had clothes, shoes, pencils, papers and a gun,” Lindley said.

The gun was loaded.

“We were in a lockdown,” one student said. “We just had to sit in class, and we weren’t allowed to be in the hallway.”

However, while the school was in lockdown and the boy was in the office, he made a run for it.

“The student was inside with the assistant principal and two officers and suddenly bolted,” Lindley said.

He was caught a few blocks away when a Warr Acres Police Officer was driving down the road and spotted the teen running up a hill near an apartment complex. He held him at gunpoint until backup arrived and took him into custody.  

“We’re glad that parents called us and let us know what was going on so we could take action,” Lindley said.

This student could be suspended for up to one year.