Teen arrested for allegedly pointing gun at other student outside Tacoma high school
Update:
Charging documents show that the student arrested by Tacoma Police officers for allegedly pointing a gun at another student in the Silas High School parking lot Wednesday was 16 years old.
The teen faces charges in Pierce County Juvenile Court of assault, unlawful possession of a firearm and possession of a dangerous weapon at school, prosecutors wrote in a declaration for determination of probable cause.
Police reports appended to the declaration show that Tacoma Police officers arrived shortly after 1:40 pm. to Silas High School at 1202 N. Orchard St. to investigate the incident and speak with district Patrol Officers and the school’s principal. The victim in the case told police that he was riding in the back passenger seat of a friend’s car around noon Wednesday, when the suspect allegedly pointed a black handgun at him through the windshield.
Officers located the suspect student sitting at a desk in a classroom with other students and arrested him without incident, according to the police reports. They also searched the suspect’s car in the school parking lot and found a black Generation 5 Glock 19 gun inside the center console, which was confirmed stolen per the Kent Police Department. The gun’s magazine had 17 live rounds of ammunition inside, but no ammunition loaded into the chamber, according to the reports.
A switch was attached to the gun that an officer recognized as a device that can “effectively turn a semi-automatic firearm into a fully automatic firearm,” according to that officer’s report.
Original post:
A student was arrested Wednesday for allegedly pointing a gun at another student in the Silas High School parking lot, according to Tacoma Police Department spokesperson Shelbie Boyd.
Officers and school patrol members responded following a report about the incident and found the handgun in the suspect vehicle, Boyd said in a phone call Thursday. The suspect was booked into Remann Hall, according to Boyd.
She didn’t have the suspect’s age, she said, but added that the teen was 17 years old or younger because police booked the suspect into Remann Hall. She also didn’t have the time that police responded to the incident.
In an email Thursday evening, Tacoma Public Schools spokesperson Kathryn McCarthy confirmed that Silas High School went into “a brief lockdown” Wednesday in response to reports of a student who allegedly had a weapon in the school parking lot, immediately contacting the Tacoma Police Department and their district security team.
“The student did not enter the building with the weapon, the police were able to keep all activity contained to the parking lot and confiscate the weapon without incident from a vehicle,” McCarthy wrote. “Following the law and our protocols, the student was detained by police and emergency expelled from school.”
School resumed as normal, including afterschool activities, after the lockdown, according to McCarthy.
She added in a later email that the lockdown lasted from 1:47 p.m.-1:54 p.m. Wednesday.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include the duration of the school lockdown.
This story was originally published May 8, 2025 at 6:48 PM.
