DETROIT — Michigan officials have filed charges against a parent and one other individual after a seven-year-old boy brought an unloaded gun to an elementary school earlier this month, prosecutors said Tuesday.
The child’s mother, Aubrey Wilson, is charged with fourth-degree child abuse, and Wilson’s fiancé, Chelsea Berkley, is charged with one count of felony firearms possession, Kent County Prosecutor Chris Becker said at a news conference Tuesday. Grand Rapids Police Department Chief Eric Winstrom said the weapon is believed to be stolen, and further charges are possible.
Staff at Cesar E. Chavez Elementary School in Grand Rapids, Michigan, confiscated an unloaded handgun from the second grader on May 3. Winstrom said officials did not believe there were any threats of violence from the student.
Becker said the gun was brought into the child’s home and left in an area where he could access it. Becker declined to answer where the gun was located before the child obtained it.
Wilson and Berkley are fully cooperative, Becker said. An arraignment date has not been announced.
The child abuse charge carries a penalty of up to one year in prison and the felony weapons charge carries a penalty of up to five years in prison.
The incident is the latest occurrence of a student taking a gun to an elementary school.
Grand Rapids Public Schools banned backpacks earlier this month after a handgun was found on a student. It was the fourth confiscation of a handgun from a student in the academic year, according to the district.
In three of the four incidents, a gun was in a backpack. The district said the latest confiscations involved elementary school students, including the discovery of a loaded handgun in the backpack of a third-grade student.
Earlier this year, a 6-year-old student shot and injured a teacher at a Virginia elementary school. The incident sparked criticism against school officials and exposed flaws in school education systems. The mother of the 6-year-old boy faces charges of felony child neglect and misdemeanor of recklessly leaving a loaded firearm so as to endanger a child.
MICHIGAN DISTRICT BACKPACK BAN:Michigan elementary school bans backpacks after loaded gun confiscated from third grader
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Charges follow backpack bans at Michigan school districts
A gun was confiscated from a third grader at Stocking Elementary School in Grand Rapids on May 10, prompting the school district to announce a ban on backpacks until the end of the school year.
Guns have also been confiscated twice at Burton Middle School, a Grand Rapids Public Schools institution, this school year. An investigation into the confiscation at Stocking Elementary remains ongoing, Winstrom said.
Grand Rapids Public Schools became the second Michigan school district to ban backpacks for the academic year after Flint Community Schools announced a similar policy in late April.
“I’ve got about 23 years of police experience and I will say this is the first time and now the second time that I’ve ever encountered a child that small having a gun in school,” Winstrom said. “It’s new to me, and to see it twice in one week very was very alarming.”
Grand Rapids Public Schools is holding a community forum May 20, for community members to attend and discuss school safety challenges.
“We are in the midst of a robust conversation about the future of securing our schools and your input is already guiding those discussions,” Dr. Leadriane Roby, the district superintendent said in a letter sent to parents Sunday night.
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New Michigan gun laws
Earlier this year, lawmakers in Michigan passed legislation to keep guns out of the hands of minors. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer also signed a new firearm safe storage law last month, which is slated to go into effect after the end of this year’s legislative session.
The law makes it a misdemeanor punishable by up to 93 days and/or a $500 fine for failing to safely store a firearm obtained by a minor possessing or exhibiting the firearm in a public place or “in the presence of another person in a careless, reckless, or threatening manner.”
It also makes it a felony in cases where a minor injures or kills themselves or others.
Becker said the safe storage law, had it been in effect, would not have fundamentally changed the investigation into the events at Cesar E. Chavez Elementary, but did say the new law would provide clarity when it comes to minors coming into possession of firearms.
Contributing: Thao Nguyen, USA TODAY; Clara Hendrickson and Lily Altavena, Detroit Free Press
Contact Arpan Lobo: alobo@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @arpanlobo.
