Mom arrested after 6-year-old son allegedly brings semi-automatic handgun to school
Written by ABC AUDIO ALL RIGHTS RESERVED on February 15, 2023
(NORRISTOWN, Pa.) — A Pennsylvania mother has turned herself in to police after her 6-year-old son allegedly took a semi-automatic handgun from her room and brought it to school, prosecutors said.
When kids got off the bus at Gotwals Elementary School on Feb. 9, they told a secretary that a “boy had been showing other students on the bus a real gun and bullets,” the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office said.
The secretary brought the 6-year-old to the office and found the gun in his backpack, and then called Norristown police, according to prosecutors.
Norristown is about 20 miles outside of Philadelphia.
The boy’s mother, 30-year-old Jasmin Devlin, was arrested for felony endangering the welfare of a child and reckless endangerment, prosecutors said.
The 6-year-old allegedly found the loaded 9 mm Jimenez Arms semi-automatic handgun in a dresser in his mother’s room on the night of Feb. 8, prosecutors said.
His 10-year-old brother allegedly took out the bullets and pointed the gun at the 6-year-old, prosecutors said.
In the middle of the night, the 6-year-old allegedly took the gun and put it in his backpack to bring to school, according to prosecutors.
Devlin turned herself in Tuesday and is due in court for a preliminary hearing on Feb. 24, prosecutors said. No attorney was listed for Devlin.
“I would like to commend the children who notified school officials immediately, thus preventing another tragedy at a school,” Norristown acting Police Chief Michael Bishop said in a statement. “These children are the true heroes in this unfortunate incident.”
Prosecutors said the handgun was bought last year in an illegal “straw purchase,” in which the actual buyer can’t pass the background check or doesn’t want to be associated with the transaction, and has another person step in to buy the weapon.
The man who bought the gun was arrested last year “and is awaiting trial on multiple felony charges relating to the illegal purchases and sales of four firearms, including the firearm in this incident,” prosecutors said.
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