The teenage suspect has been arrested and charged with carrying an illegal weapon. (Representative)
Texas:
A student was caught with a firearm outside a high school in the U.S. state of Texas a day after a deadly gunman shot dead 19 students and two teachers at a school in Uvalade, media reports said Wednesday.
Police have arrested a man suspected of possessing a rifle at Richardson High School in Texas. It comes a day after an 18-year-old gunman killed more than a dozen students.
“On May 25, 2022, at 10:55 a.m., the Richardson Police Department received a phone call from a business in the 1500 block of East Spring Valley Road where a man was reported to be carrying a rifle. The man was last seen walking on 1600 East Spring Valley Road. Towards Burkina Faso High School, “the Richardson Police Department said in a press release.
Within minutes of the call being sent, a number of police officers from various units of the Richardson Police Department responded to Berkner High School and began investigating the incident. The surrounding schools were informed about police activities.
Based on the information provided, police officers were able to identify the suspect male as a teenage student at Birkner High School. The suspect was located inside Birkner High School, but no weapons were found.
Further investigation led to the discovery of a vehicle used by the suspect in the parking lot at 1551 East Spring Valley Road. Inside the vehicle, officers spotted an AK-47 pistol and a replica AR-15 orbis rifle.
“The juvenile suspect has been arrested and charged with carrying an illegal weapon in an unarmed school zone, TPC 46.02, a state prison offense. No further information is being released about the suspect because of his age,” police said.
The head of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) asked on Wednesday: How many more children will die before leaders take action?
“Tragedy after tragedy, shooting after shooting, young life after youth: how many more children will die before government leaders work to keep children and their schools safe?” UNICEF Executive Director Katherine Russell asked. “Because this horror will continue until they do.”
The shooting comes amid growing criticism of the constitutionally protected U.S. gun law, especially those that allow the sale of automatic weapons to young people under the age of 21.
On Wednesday, Governor Greg Abbott confirmed that the Texas school shooter used an AR-15 assault rifle.
More than half of Americans support tougher gun violence laws, The Hill reported, citing a survey conducted in New York and Texas this month.
According to the American publication, 54 percent of those polled in the CBS News-YouGov poll on Wednesday said they would like to see stricter gun control laws.
A total of 30 percent said they want gun laws to remain the same, and 16 percent said they want gun laws to be less stringent, the report added.
(Except for the title, this story was not edited by NDTV staff and was published from a syndicated feed.)
