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Gun Found at School; Three Boys Arrested

Posted on: Saturday, 17 June 2006, 09:00 CDT

By Brandon Bailey and Jessie Mangaliman, San Jose Mercury News, Calif.

Jun. 17--Sunnyvale police arrested three male students Thursday after finding a loaded handgun in a backpack stashed behind bushes at the Adair Community Day School, a public middle school for troubled youths in Sunnyvale.

Two of the students, ages 14 and 15, attended Adair, police said. The third, who is 13, attends an unidentified middle school in San Jose and lives in Cupertino.

There were indications the boys planned to use the gun to confront rival gang members in San Jose, said Lt. Marty Dale of the Sunnyvale Public Safety Department.

Initially, one of the youths told officers he was carrying it for self-defense because he'd been assaulted by other youths earlier this week, Dale said. But he said the boys later said they planned to bring the gun to a shopping mall, where the confrontation was to occur. Dale said he didn't know which mall and it wasn't clear whether the confrontation happened.

All three boys have gang affiliations, said Dale, who added that it appears the backpack belonged to the Cupertino boy.

Police showed up at Adair -- which is a room in the Sunnyvale school district offices for students who have been expelled from other middle schools -- at 10:30 a.m., after receiving reports that a student or students had a handgun.

A school employee had seen a student behind some bushes on school grounds and alerted a school district manager, Dale said. The school official went behind the bushes and found the backpack containing a 9mm semiautomatic pistol.

After eighth-grade graduation, police interviewed students, and two of them reportedly confessed to bringing the weapon. The third student was arrested later. All were booked at Juvenile Hall in San Jose on charges of possession of a loaded firearm on school grounds and conspiracy to possess a firearm.

Sunnyvale School District Superintendent Joseph Rudnicki said it doesn't appear the students planned to use the gun at the school. But he added: "Yes, of course, I'm concerned whenever there's a gun in any of our campuses."

Contact Jessie Mangaliman at jmangaliman@mercurynews. com or (408) 920-5794.

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Copyright (c) 2006, San Jose Mercury News, Calif.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: San Jose Mercury News

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