A routine parking-lot check at Brownstown Elementary School turned into a felony arrest Friday morning after a school resource officer spotted a teenager acting strangely inside a parked vehicle on campus. Two people, 18-year-old Ciaran Couche of Bradenton, Florida, and 19-year-old Angelia Overberg of Scottsburg, Indiana, were taken into custody and charged with possessing a firearm on school property.
According to WDRB, student resource officer Levi Caudill was conducting a routine security check of the campus when he noticed a teenager behaving suspiciously inside a vehicle in the parking lot. Brownstown Schools said Caudill observed the behavior during that standard sweep of the grounds, which led directly to the discovery that prompted the arrests.
Officials were careful to note one key detail: the firearm never actually made it into the school building itself, per the station's report. Even so, the presence of a gun on campus property was enough to trigger charges against both Couche and Overberg for possessing a firearm on school grounds.
School Says Safety Was Never Compromised
As police investigated, staff at the elementary school took precautionary measures, as reported by Fox59. Brownstown Schools said the safety of all students and staff was maintained throughout the incident, according to the same account from WDRB.
The arrests come amid a broader statewide conversation about gun incidents in Indiana classrooms and on school campuses. Earlier this month, Governor Mike Braun announced a statewide school safety tip line on October 2, with the service set to begin operating the following year. It lets the public anonymously report concerns about bullying and other safety issues, according to Indiana Public Media.
Firearm Arrests Have Dropped Statewide This Year
That same outlet reported that Indiana schools logged five student arrests for firearm possession during the 2025-26 academic year, along with 1,835 incidents of physical bullying. That marks a steep decline from the prior academic year, when schools statewide reported 20 firearm arrests and more than 2,000 physical-bullying incidents, Indiana Public Media noted.
Gun incidents on Indiana school grounds are not new. In August 2023, officials said six guns had turned up at central Indiana schools since the start of that school year, with four of those incidents occurring at Indianapolis schools, according to WRTV. That same month, students at Arsenal Tech High School and Frankfort High School were arrested for having weapons, and a Whiteland bus driver confiscated a gun from an elementary school student's backpack after another student raised the alarm, WRTV reported.
More recently, a North Central High School student in Indianapolis was found in August with a loaded 9mm Glock 19 modified with an illegal machine-gun conversion device, as reported by the IndyStar. The 16-year-old faced allegations of unlawful carrying of a handgun, possession of a machine gun, possession of a firearm on school property and dangerous possession of a firearm.
What Indiana Law Says About Guns on Campus
Under a reference guide published by the Indiana State Police, carrying a firearm within school property or on a school bus is classified as a Level 6 felony. It remains unclear what specific charges Couche and Overberg are facing beyond the general allegation of possessing a firearm on school property, and no further details about the circumstances of Friday's arrest have been released.
