Columbus police said Thursday they are investigating an incident in which a man who was observed with a handgun in the parking lot of a local school this week.
According to a press release issued Thursday, a Columbus Police Department school resource officer received a report Wednesday morning of a gun at McDowell Education Center, 2700 McKinley Avenue. CPD officers immediately responded and gathered that a student saw a man leaning into the back seat of an SUV in the parking lot. While the man was leaning into the back seat, the student saw a handgun in the back waistband of the man’s pants. The student reported the sighting to a teacher.
CPD officers found the SUV in the parking lot. The driver was found to be an 18-year-old man who was carrying a handgun concealed on his person.
“He was not a prohibited person and was legally allowed to carry a handgun. While bringing a student to McDowell, he briefly exited the vehicle one time and leaned into the back seat, but never left the area of the vehicle. The man was issued a trespass warning for McDowell and released,” according to CPD.
All students were kept safely inside the school until the officers concluded their investigation, CPD said.
“CPD commends the student for reporting the suspicious behavior. We encourage anyone who sees suspicious or dangerous activity to report it immediately,” the department said.
Indiana law makes carrying a firearm on school property a Level 6 felony, with narrow exceptions.
“The safety of our students and teachers is of the utmost importance to the Columbus Police Department,” CPD spokesman Sgt. Skylar Berry said. “Indiana law requires that for a person to possess a firearm on school property, they must legally possess the firearm and the person is in their vehicle or the firearm is either locked in their trunk, kept in the glove compartment of their locked vehicle, or stored out of plain sight in their locked vehicle.
“With these things in mind, we have assigned a detective from our Investigations Division to look into this incident further,” Berry said.
“At Bartholomew Consolidated School Corporation (BCSC), the safety of our students and staff is our highest priority,” spokesman Josh Burnett said in a statement Thursday. “To achieve this, we partner closely with our local law enforcement agencies, including our school resource officers through the Columbus Police Department and Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Department. We look forward to continuing to work with our local law enforcement partners to ensure the safety of all students and staff.”
This article has been updated with additional official comment.
