A mother was charged after staff at a Norfolk, Virginia, school caught her 6-year-old child with a gun in the latest incident involving minor children bringing firearms to schools.
Letty M. Lopez's child brought the weapon to Little Creek Elementary School on Thursday, Norfolk police said in a news release.
Officers were called to the school where a staff member turned over the firearm. No one was injured.
Lopez, 35, was charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor and allowing a child to have access to a loaded firearm. She was released on a criminal summons. It's not clear if she has obtained an attorney.
In recent weeks, a woman in Pennsylvania and a man in North Carolina were charged in separate incidents involving children being found with guns on school property. In Pennsylvania, Norristown police were called to Joseph K. Gotwals Elementary School after students reported to staff that a 6-year-old boy was showing off a firearm on the bus, according to NBC Philadelphia.
The child told investigators that he found a loaded gun in his mother's dresser. His 10-year-old brother took the bullets out of the gun and pointed it at the 6-year-old pretending to shoot him, investigators said. The 6-year-old said he went back into his mother's bedroom and put the gun in his backpack and took it to school.
The boy's mother, Jasmin Devlin, 30, surrendered to police and was charged with endangering the welfare of a child and reckless endangerment, according to the news station.
Rocky Mount, North Carolina, police charged Marvin Ray Davis, 58, with storage of a firearm to protect a minor after a 6-year-old boy bought an unloaded firearm to Fairview Elementary School, NBC affiliate WRAL of Raleigh reported. Davis is not related to the boy but lives in the same home, police said.
In January, a 6-year-old Virginia student is accused of shooting his first-grade teacher at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News. The parents of the child have not been charged, although experts told NBC News they could be criminally culpable depending on if they properly secured the weapon.
