Three Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. students were taken to the Bartholomew County Youth Services Center on preliminary charges of truancy and resisting law enforcement during an investigation into a report of a Columbus North High School student having a handgun at school.
A North student told a dean that another North student could be in possession of a handgun on Monday, according to a joint press release from the Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Department and BCSC.
School resource officers from the sheriff’s department and Columbus Police Department spotted the individual who was accused of having the handgun on Monday who was accompanied by three other students at Taco Bell off 25th Street.
As School Resource officer Deputy Teancum Clark approached the students, they fled, and Clark was able to locate three of them, including the individual who was accused of having the handgun, investigators said. The fourth student escaped but was later identified.
The three who were detained were taken to the youth services center on preliminary charges of truancy and resisting law enforcement, deputies said. No handgun was immediately located.
As the investigation continued, it was learned that the handgun had been thrown into nearby landscaping during the foot pursuit, deputies said.
Clark and additional deputies, including a K9, searched for the gun, but could not find it. The ongoing investigation revealed that the fourth student who had evaded deputies had later gone back to the scene and retrieved the handgun.
Clark was able to track down the handgun along with an additional handgun, both of which had previously been reported as stolen through the Franklin Police Department.
Investigators said they did not reveal the incident to the public until Tuesday night saying they withheld the information in order not to interfere with an ongoing investigation after school hours. Deputies and school officials said that at no time were staff or students in danger of being harmed on the North campus.
BCSC will be taking disciplinary action, according to investigators.
For more on this story, see Wednesday’s Republic.
