Firefighter put gun on windshield before it fell outside school

ROCKFORD, Mich. (WOOD) — The man whose gun fell onto the ground outside of a Rockford school building last week told police that he put it on the windshield and forgot to remove it before driving his daughter to school, court documents said.

According to the probable cause affidavit, a firearm was found on Tuesday around 7:45 a.m. in the middle of the driveway into River Valley Academy, within the city right of way and not on school property, by a parent. The officer got the semi-automatic gun from the parent, ran the serial number and contacted the owner, Jason Stoll.

Stoll immediately apologized and told the officer on the phone that it must have fallen out of his vehicle when he dropped his daughter off. Court documents said that he was going to come pick it up around 9:30 a.m.

When he arrived at the police station, court documents said that he apologized numerous times. He told the officer that he put the pistol on the windshield near the windshield wipers before leaving his home because he couldn’t bring it to work. Stoll said that he was in a hurry, forgot about it and left to take his daughter to school before going to work.

Stoll works for the Rockford Department of Public Services and is a paid on-call firefighter, police said. The gun is his personal property and he wasn’t in a city-owned vehicle at the time.

“Stoll stated he usually is a responsible gun owner but today was definitely a wake up call,” the probable cause affidavit said.

On Friday, a charge of reckless use of firearm was issued against Stoll , Kent County Prosecutor Chris Becker announced.

After Becker announced the charges, the Rockford Department of Public Safety said in a release that it “should have taken the additional step of retaining the handgun until the prosecutor’s office completed its review.”

The department will often give guns back to owners if they have been identified and no charges are being sought, according to a release.

“In this case, though, since school property was involved and the incident was being reviewed for charges, we should have retained the weapon,” the release says. “We plan to use this as a learning opportunity so all of our officers can review future situations like this with more context.”

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