An Emerson Elementary student in Berkeley found a loaded gun and took it to school Monday, authorities have reported.
According to the Berkeley Police Department, an Emerson teacher discovered the student with the handgun. Staff took possession of the gun and called police to turn it in, said Lt. Dan Montgomery of BPD.
Montgomery said officers later responded to the boy’s home to learn more from him and his parents, “in large part to check on the safety and welfare of the child and to make sure there was no threat of violence in the future at the school.”
The boy told police he found the gun “near a neighborhood school while in the company of cousins.”
The exact location of the discovery was not provided, but the school is located at 2800 Forest Ave. in the Elmwood neighborhood, near Piedmont Avenue and the UC Berkeley campus.