A 15-year-old Morgantown High School student was taken into juvenile custody after being found with an unloaded, stolen handgun on campus Thursday.
Morgantown Police Chief Ed Preston said officers responded to a report that a student had a gun, and they arrived to find the boy, who had been reported as a runaway, outside the school near the bleachers at Pony Lewis Field.
“It was a large-caliber revolver and it was hidden on his person,” Preston said. “It was not being brandished or flashed or anything like that.”
The boy, a freshman, was taken into custody without incident around noon Thursday. There were no injuries.
The chief said officers assumed the gun was loaded. He’s glad it wasn’t.
“You always consider every firearm that you deal with as being a loaded weapon,” the chief said. “Bringing firearms into the school, bringing firearms around juveniles and the large assemblies, it just begs of wanton endangerment.”
Morgantown police were investigating the student’s possible intentions. The Monongalia County Sheriff’s Department was helping with the runaway and stolen gun aspects of the investigation.
“We don’t know what the intent is and we won’t assume what the intent is,” Preston said. “We’ll investigate fully to find out whether there was an intention to cause harm, whether that harm was to be directed at a specific person or individual.”