KEARNY —
Two boys who reportedly brought a fake gun to Franklin School last Tuesday morning learned a lesson in law enforcement when they ended up in police custody — with one them being sent to the Youth House in Union County.
The Kearny Police Department said it received a call at 8:31 a.m., May 10, from a concerned citizen who reported seeing two school-age boys walking south on Davis Ave. towards Franklin School, and one appeared to pass a handgun to the other.
As Officer Chris Levchak interviewed the caller to get further information, Det. Marc McCaffrey and members of the KPD Juvenile Aid Bureau and the Community Policing Unit were dispatched to the area, as were patrol units and the Tactical Services Unit.
Classes were not yet in session, so the officers — armed with descriptions of the two boys — mingled with the crowd of students and teachers outside the school building. On the Wilson Ave. side, Officers Sean Wilson, Alan Stickno and Jack Grimm located and detained the suspect duo, and a facsimile semi-automatic handgun was reportedly recovered from one boy’s backpack. Police said the black plastic weapon had an orange tip, indicating it was fake.
The boys, aged 11 and 13, were taken to the Juvenile Aid Bureau, where both were charged with having a firearm on school property, aggravated assault, unlawful possession of a weapon and possession of a firearm. Police said the assault charge stemmed from a report that, at some point, one of the youths had pointed the weapon at someone.
Hudson County Juvenile authorities were contacted and advised that the younger boy could be released to the custody of his parents. However, they ordered the 13-year-old remanded to the Youth House, police said. (Editor’s note: This was apparently a temporary incarceration. On Friday, sources told The Observer that he “was probably out by now.”)
The Observer posted a report on the incident on our website at 10 a.m. the morning it happened — in part to counteract the false accounts that were apparently rampant through the town. As we noted, everything occurred “before the students went inside the school building — and contrary to rumors circulating on social media, the school was not locked down at any point.”
