Rumored school shooting locks down Englewood High

Englewood High School was placed on lockdown Tuesday due to a rumor about a potential school shooting — a day after a student was arrested for having guns in his car , school officials said.

The two incidents followed weeks of arrests of students, some as young as 11, at schools in Duval, Putnam and St. Johns counties after threats of violence to other children and schools.

The 17-year-old Englewood student was charged with three counts of possession of a firearm on school property, along with three more for gun possession by a minor, according to a newly released arrest report. The teen, whose home address was about a mile from the school, also was charged with possession of burglary tools, the report said.

The arrest report says a school police officer learned the teen was on the Barnes Road campus Monday. The report indicates that the teen had been involved in a previous incident involving a firearm.

The officer’s K9, Maverick, reacted to something while searching the teen’s Honda on the Barnes Road campus. A search turned up a Glock handgun in the car’s center console with a loaded magazine, plus another with an extended loaded magazine behind a front seat, the report said.

An AR-style rifle was found in a backpack in the trunk with loaded ammunition magazines, the report said. A mask, gloves and burglary tools also were found, the report said.

None of the weapons were listed as stolen, and all were put in the police department’s property room, the arrest report said.

Parents were alerted in a text message from the school’s principal, Marleny Chirino.

Parents received two more text messages Tuesday, the first stating that the school was on lockdown “as a precaution while police investigate a threat” — the rumor of a potential school shooting. That was followed later Tuesday with a second message that signaling no threat had been found.

“While there was no threat or any type of violence, something caused some students to panic,” the second text message said. “Calm has been restored, and students are safe.”

School district officials would not respond to a Jacksonville Today request for comment about the discovery of the three guns.

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