Teen Brought Loaded Gun to School, Police Say

A 17-year-old student was arrested by Gulfport Police on the charge of possession of a firearm on school property, after another student informed the school's SRO's about potential danger.

Officers are not identifying the 11th grade student at Boca Ciega High School.

According to police, a female student received a series of odd text messages from the male student. They were texting back and forth about meeting. Due to the nature of the texts, school resource officers were alerted to the possibility that the student could pose harm to others at the school. Some of the texts infored the girl of a lockdown.  

The Gulfport school resource officers went to the student's classroom and escorted the student back to the SRO office.

Police say that they located and removed a loaded .380 semi-automatic pistol from his backpack.

The student claims to have gotten the firearm from a locked safe at his home, where in the past he had observed his mother punch in the code without her knowledge, police said. He used that code to gain access to the firearm and took it to school.

The student told officers that he planned to turn the gun on himself after school and wasn't going to harm anyone but himself.