A Casa Grande father and his 10-year-old son are facing charges after the boy brought a gun to school and made threatening remarks towards another student, according to local police.
The unsettling discovery was made last Thursday when a .22 caliber handgun turned up on the sports field of Legacy Traditional School, a pre-K-8 charter school located in Casa Grande; this led to a lockdown while police earnestly combed through the campus for any additional weapons, which thankfully resulted in no further dangerous items being found. ABC15 reported that the student who located the gun immediately informed a staff member to initiate the school's response.
Subsequent investigation by Casa Grande authorities revealed the child's action followed a threat he had allegedly directed at one of his peers; the boy is now facing a slew of charges, including possession of a firearm by a minor, misconduct involving weapons, and disrupting an educational institution. As for the boy's father, 35-year-old Matthew Ozorkiewicz, he is accused of endangerment for purportedly knowing about his son's threat before the discovery of the gun and failing to prevent the child from taking the weapon to school or to properly secure it, as detailed in a report by AZ Family.
In response to this incident, the Casa Grande Police Department has stressed the significance of gun safety and responsible ownership emphasizing that, “We encourage parents and guardians to have ongoing conversations with their children about safety, accountability, and the serious consequences associated with threats and weapons,” as the department shared in a social media post that underscores the imperative of community awareness on these critical issues. In a time where concerns over school safety persist, this recent event has once again brought to the fore the vital conversation about responsible firearm storage and the paramount duty of adults in preempting possible tragedy within educational settings.
