Cops Bust 3rd And 5th Graders On Weapons Charges

Police arrested two 3rd graders and a 5th grader suspected of bringing a box cutter and a knife to their Bronx elementary school on Wednesday. According to the Post, a school safety agent nabbed a 9-year-old with a box cutter inside P.S. 2 on Franklin Avenue in Morrisania at around 9:30 am. When questioned, the student ratted out his accomplices — an 8-year-old and an 11-year-old — who reportedly were plotting an assault against a faculty member.

The boys, who allegedly were also carrying spray paint, were charged with conspiracy to commit a crime and criminal possession of a weapon. Students at the school, which is located just blocks from where teen Vada Vasquez was shot earlier this month, were frightened. "I'm scared to go back to school," 10-year-old Izhanee Thomas told the Daily News. "He was a nice boy. I don't know why he did it. I just know it's scary."

The Department of Education won't say whether the three boys — who were cuffed and escorted to the Spofford Juvenile Center last night — will be expelled, according to NY1. A relative of one of the adolescents criticized their treatment by police: "My grandson has been in custody for 12 hours and they did not feed him dinner. You don't treat children like this," said Melvin Mann, 59. "He's not a bad kid. He's polite and respectful. He'd been in a fight [Tuesday] and kids told him they were going to jump him. He was defending himself."

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By Ben Muessig in News on November 26, 2009 4:06 PM

Comments [rss]

NannyState

Kids are so cute!

Chillinoncentral

Wow, the worst I ever carried around at that age was a pensy-pinky and a sharpened pencil !

Dims Onderhoud

Damn third and fifth graders with guns, thank gos i am not a teacher

5borough

Did their fathers have any comment?

potsmoker

i find this very disturbing.

a 6yr old white suburban kid gets profiled in the nytimes as a good kid who was excited about boyscouting whose parents are outraged at his suspension.

in nyc 3 minority children aged 8, 9 & 11 are indentified by name in the paper with a preposterous story about a criminal conspiracy to assault a faculty member, arrested and interrogated at a police station without a lawyer or parents present as required by law and sent to a juvenille detention facilty. sleepwell crimefighters and the reporters that love you,

you have made nyc safer.

5borough

Preposterous!

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/AsSeenOnGMA/story?id=4602938&page=1

Steven

Over and over again.

The same comment.

They were good kids.

Never fails.

rcltrh

Because all polite and respectful kids take weapons and spray paint to school to plan an assault against their teacher and whatever else the spray paint was for. They should also lock up the grandfather and the baby mamma both for raising these soon to be worthless thugs.

learnedhand

Children under 10 (maybe even 12) can't legally be held in a secure detention facility (which Spofford, aka Bridges is). The police had the authority to release the kids, but apparently chose not to. Kids who've done far worse get DATs from the police, but these kids spend Thanksgiving in detention? Hopefully the holiday arraignment judge released them.