REDFORD TOWNSHIP, Mich. – A 14-year-old 7th grade student is in juvenile detention and is not allowed near his classmates after a crime spree which allegedly had him carrying a .22-caliber revolver in his backpack into a Redford Township school.
The boy had already been suspended from Hilbert Middle School, meaning he wasn't supposed to be there in the first place. Yet, he waited until classes let out for the day and in the confusion of 700 students leaving he entered a front door near where the buses are filled.
When he got to his locker a teacher noticed him. He quietly asked him to go with him to the office where he was told to empty his pockets.
The principal found a table knife and some bullets. A full box of bullets was sticking out of a shirt or coat pocket.
That's when the school police officer was called in. He put the boy in cuffs and searched his backpack where he found the gun that went with the ammunition, and some jewelry.
These were items the boy apparently told the police officer he had stolen from an unoccupied house which he allegedly broke into about 1/2 mile away.
The boy was cooperative, police say, and claimed he only wanted to sell the gun and not use it against students or teachers.
He has been permanently expelled from the school. The principal put out a safety alert to parents using telephone messages.
Jennifer Alexander's stepson attends the school. She had not heard these details.
"Oh wow. I didn't know anything like that," she said.
It was unsettling to her and other parents in the area.
"That's just scary in general. No child should really have to endure that type of fear when they're going to school, and no parent should have to get that type of phone call either," said Alexander.
The school has video cameras and the superintendent told Local 4 there is a complete security review being conducted including how the boy entered the building and whether that could have been prevented.
Meanwhile, police say the school did a very good job of containing the problem and making certain everyone stayed safe.