Arrests imminent in middle school incident

#MiddleburyCT #MemorialMiddleSchool #MiddleburyPolice #Bullet

Firearms confiscated by the Middlebury Police Department in the Memorial Middle School incident are, top, an AR-15 rifle; middle row, l-r, a 9 mm Glock pistol, a .38 caliber Smith & Wesson revolver, and a .40 caliber Glock pistol; and bottom, the 9 mm Taurus revolver the student allegedly brought to school. (Marjorie Needham photo)

Middlebury Police Chief Pat Deely said on Saturday, May 13, that arrests are imminent in the March 24 incident in which a single 9 mm round (bullet) was found on a hallway floor at Memorial Middle School in Middlebury. At that time, the school was placed under lockdown and local police called in the Connecticut State Police, who brought in a dog trained to sniff out firearms. The dog sniffed through the lockers at the school without finding a weapon.

A break in the investigation came when a student at the school took a picture of themselves with a 9 mm Taurus pistol and posted the picture on TikTok. Deely said fellow students who saw the picture reported it to the principal Thursday, May 11, and Middlebury police officers worked through the night Thursday and most of the day Friday to solve the case.

They determined the student had taken the Taurus to school March 24 and had it in their waistband at the school when the school went into lockdown and law enforcement was at the school. Deely said individual students had not been patted down at the time because a single bullet on the hallway floor was not determined to be probable cause for that action.

Officers went to the student’s home Friday, May 12, and seized the 9 mm Taurus. They also removed other firearms from the home and are keeping them until a judge makes a decision on what should be done with them.

Deely said the entire case is being presented to Rob Mullins, the new state attorney working with juvenile matters. Deely said he expects charges will be filed against the student and also against the adult(s) who failed to secure the weapons.

Deely said some students knew the weapon was in the school March 24, but they did not report it. He said Region 15 Superintendent Joshua Smith will be addressing that issue with further education. Deely said, “We need to get them (students) to understand in this day and age the seriousness of this issue and if they see something, they need to say something.” He said he believed all participants in the incident have now been identified.