Rifle Pointed at School Leads to Arrests

SANTA CLARITA —  Two men and two boys have been arrested in connection with an incident in which a teenager pointed an unloaded rifle at an elementary school shortly before students were to be released for the day, sheriff’s officials said Wednesday.

The incident occurred Aug. 11 outside Rio Vista Elementary School in Canyon Country when a 15-year-old Castaic boy allegedly pointed the gun from a parked car and began pulling the trigger on an empty chamber, or “dry firing,” said Santa Clarita Sheriff’s Deputy John Howard.

No shots were fired and no one was injured, Howard said.

“He started playing with the gun and pointing it throughout the neighborhood,” Howard said. “The school officials were very concerned and very scared.”

School officials called the Sheriff’s Department. By the time deputies arrived, the car was gone, but a partial license plate number led deputies to the suspects, Howard said.

The rifle, which had reportedly been stolen from the stepfather of an acquaintance of the 15-year-old, was later allegedly illegally purchased by an employee of a Newhall pawnshop, deputies said.

On Wednesday, sheriff’s officials said they had arrested the pawnshop employee, the 15-year-old boy, a 17-year-old boy who allegedly stole the rifle from his stepfather and an 18-year-old man who allegedly sold the gun.

The three teenagers were arrested Aug. 13. Travis Desmond, 18, of Canyon Country has been charged with felony possession of a firearm near an occupied elementary school and possession of stolen property. Desmond allegedly agreed to sell the gun for the unnamed 17-year-old, who was charged with grand theft of a firearm. The 17-year-old, from Valencia, was on probation for burglary, officials said.

The 15-year-old was also charged with possession of a firearm near an occupied elementary school.

On Tuesday, sheriff’s deputies arrested Roger Vernon, 50, of Newhall, an employee of Newhall Loans on San Fernando Road, on suspicion of possession of stolen property. Vernon “purchased the stolen gun for himself illegitimately without completing the required paperwork,” sheriff’s officials alleged.

Saugus School District spokeswoman Ellen Morgan said that students were in class when the incident occurred and that no one at the school saw the boy with the gun.

However, in light of several recent highly publicized school shootings around the country, Morgan said, “it’s going to heighten our awareness a little.”