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4 Teens in Court Over Guns at Middle School

Four students who were allegedly involved with two handguns being found at Brownsville Middle School in Miami will not be going home anytime soon by order of a juvenile court judge.

“The facts of the arrest form being that the firearm was loaded and the location of the firearm, I find that it is for the community’s best interest that he be held in secure detention,” said Judge Cristina Miranda. “No one goes home.”

According to the arrest forms obtained by NBC 6 Thursday, police found a loaded .45 and an unloaded .25 caliber hand gun inside of Brownsville Middle School Wednesday. Police said the student with the loaded .45 told police the gun was given to him by an unknown student to hold.

One of the 15-year-old’s confessed he took custody of the gun from a fellow classmate. One of the students admitted to passing the firearm around to several of his friends who are gang members, according to the police report.

Police said the serial numbers had been removed from one of the weapons and that the .45 caliber hand gun had been stolen in Georgia. The students will remain in custody for now and have been given court dates to see the judge again.

“It’s an unfortunate situation that happened yesterday, but at the end of the days, the kids are being dealt with in the appropriate manner,” said Miami-Dade Schools Police Chief Ian Moffett.

Chief Moffett continued, “Our detectives are working with law enforcement partners to look into that fact whether or not they are gang members. I can tell you I’ve been working gangs my entire career, and it’s very important to have a three-prong approach: prevention, intervention, and law enforcement.”

Moffett said the gang activity from areas like Miami Gardens, central Miami, and Homestead sometimes filters into the schools. Still, the chief said the kids are still young and there’s time to turn them around before they become hardened gang members.

“We know we have to target middle school age kids,” Moffett said. “If we don’t target them and change their mentalities, by the time they get to high school, it’s already ingrained.”

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