Police: Student, 12, arrested after bringing gun to school

RIVERSIDE, Calif. (AP) — A 12-year-old boy was arrested Wednesday after he showed off a handgun in his backpack to classmates and it fired into a table at a Southern California middle school, authorities said. No one was hurt.

The student, whose name was not released, was booked into a juvenile detention facility on suspicion of negligent discharge of a firearm within an occupied building and possession of a firearm on a school campus, according to the Riverside Police Department.

The student was attending an afterschool program around 5 p.m. at the Loma Vista Middle School in Riverside, police said.

“As he reached into the backpack, the gun fired and struck the table then the ground,” the police department said in a news release.

The school campus went into lockdown and students were evacuated to a safe location. Police found the loaded gun and staff members pointed out the student.

Officers found other guns at the student’s house and seized them, police said. Counselors were on campus the next day.

The city of Riverside is about 50 miles (80.47 kilometers) east of Los Angeles.