The 9-year-old boy who threatened his classmates with a loaded handgun has been placed in home detention.
The third-grader appeared in juvenile court the day after he had been caught taking a gun in his backpack to Lauderhill Elementary School, in Florida on Oct. 2.
He was placed in home detention for 21 days, reported NBC Miami, and was told to have no contact with the three classmates he had threatened.
Broward County Judge Elijah Williams also ordered the boy to have not access to the Internet, social media, guns or weapons, and to wear an ankle bracelet, according to CBS Miami.
He will return for a further hearing on Oct. 10, and will undergo a psychiatric evaluation.
The boy, whose name is being withheld, was accompanied by his parents during the hearing.
More details of the incident emerged in court.
The boy had been picked on and bullied in school, according to various reports heard in court, reported CBS.
Earlier reports stated that the three classmates he threatened with the gun had been bullying him.
According to court documents, the boy approached a classmate in class, asking, “Do you want to see my gun?” reported CBS.
He then pulled out the gun out of his pocket. When the classmate said to put it away and that he would tell the teacher, the nine-year-old pointed the gun at the classmates leg and said, “Don’t tell the teacher, or I’ll shoot you in the leg.”
One student did tell the teacher however.
A parent told CBS the boy showed her daughter the gun prior to the incident.
“I just heard that my daughter witnessed a little boy with a gun he brought to the school and opened it up and showed her the bullets.”
The woman, who did not wish to give her name, said her daughter did the right thing and informed the teacher.
The loaded .380 caliber Ruger handgun belonged to his father, had no safety mechanism, and had a bullet in the chamber.
A police statement, obtained by local media, said he made “threatening comments regarding being bullied by the victims.”
Lauderhill police spokeswoman, YvonneMarquez-Perkins told Fox News, “We received a report that a 9-year-old child, a third-grader, brought a gun to school. He took the gun out of his backpack and threatened three of his classmates.”
Marquez-Perkins said it was an isolated incident.
The school was not evacuated at any point, Local 10 News reported, and it took about two minutes for the school resource officer to diffuse the situation.
According to local county procedures, the student is automatically expelled from his school, and must seek enrolment in another.
The boy was charged on three counts of aggravated assault and one count of possession of a firearm on school property.
From The Epoch Times
