A 16-year-old junior at East Nashville Magnet High School was taken into custody on Wednesday after allegedly trying to ditch a backpack containing a loaded, stolen handgun just outside the building. School resource officer Mario Ferrer noticed the student enter the school carrying two backpacks that morning, according to the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department, and that small detail set off a chain of events that ended with the teen in handcuffs.
Police say the student reentered the school carrying only one backpack after making eye contact with Ferrer and turning back toward the parking lot, according to the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department. Surveillance footage reviewed by Ferrer showed the student ditching the second backpack near the cafeteria loading dock, per the department. Law enforcement recovered a loaded firearm from the discarded bag, officials said, and the teen now faces charges of theft of a firearm, possession of a firearm on school property, and juvenile handgun possession, as reported by WKRN News 2.
Officials have not released additional details about the incident, including how the student allegedly acquired the weapon or whether he passed through the school's entry screening with both bags. The gun itself has a documented history: a Texas woman reported it stolen in March 2026 after leaving her vehicle unlocked while staying at a Delaware Avenue rental property, according to officials cited in the WKRN report.
A Familiar Pattern of Guns Stolen From Cars
The theft fits a pattern Nashville police have been flagging publicly for months. As of Tuesday, the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department reported that 401 of the 602 firearms stolen citywide in 2026 — roughly 66 percent — were taken from motor vehicles. That echoes a broader regional trend; in 2024, Metro Nashville police reported 928 guns stolen from vehicles, a persistent problem that WPLN News has traced back to a 2013 state law permitting gun owners to store firearms in parked cars.
This is not the first time a gun stolen from a car has turned up at East Nashville Magnet High. In February, another 16-year-old student at the same school was arrested after police and school security found two handguns — one of them also stolen during a vehicle break-in — hidden in the woods next to the football field, Hoodline previously reported on that campus arrest. The school has a longer history with firearm incidents as well: in October 2024, three students were arrested there after security searches turned up handguns inside two discarded backpacks and inside a vehicle parked on school grounds.
How MNPS Screens for Weapons
East Nashville Magnet High School, located at 110 Gallatin Road, is a public magnet school serving grades 9 through 12 with Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate coursework, according to the Tennessee State Report Card. Metro Nashville Public Schools completed a systemwide rollout of Evolv artificial intelligence weapons-detection scanners across all district middle and high schools by May, per Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools. Those scanners are paired with dedicated Metro Nashville Police Department school resource officers stationed inside buildings to handle threat assessments and day-to-day security, the district says.
Similar screening technology has caught weapons elsewhere in the district. In August 2025, a 17-year-old student at Maplewood High School was arrested after an Evolv unit alerted staff to a loaded handgun in his backpack. In March 2026, an adult parent was arrested at Glencliff Elementary School after a scanner detected a handgun and marijuana in his bag while he was trying to enroll his children.
Potential Legal Exposure
Under Tennessee Code Annotated § 39-17-1309, carrying or possessing a firearm on public school property with intent to go armed is a Class E felony, carrying penalties of up to six years in prison and fines as high as $3,000, according to Justia Law. It remains unclear how the East Nashville teen came into possession of the gun stolen five months earlier, and officials have not said whether he bypassed entry scanners while carrying two backpacks. Those questions, along with what disciplinary or legal steps Davidson County prosecutors and MNPS will pursue, remain open as the case proceeds.
