Gun scare at Philadelphia public school, three students in police custody

Three Philly teens where brought into police custody late Thursday after a gun scare at a Philadelphia public school caused a lock down.

Around 9:50 a.m. on Thursday, the mother of a student phoned the Tanner Duckrey School in North Philadelphia to inform school officials that she noticed her gun was missing from her home and her eighth-grade son may have taken it.

The Philadelphia public school was immediately placed on lockdown with local police arriving to conduct a sweep of the school using their trained K-9s.

During their investigation police discovered a BB Gun brought to the school by another student. They did not however, find the gun of the concerned mother or her son who did not arrive at school that day.

Police took the 13-year-old and the BB Gun into custody.

“I know that we acted quickly once we heard of this report of a possible threat and we did a full search and we found it and confiscated it,” said School District of Philadelphia Spokesperson Lee Whack.

Students in the school became nervous during the sweeps with some reaching out to their parents through text.

Felicia Pendleton, the mother of a fourth-grader, rushed to the school to pick her daughter up.

“I asked her, I said, ‘Is it a drill?’ She said, ‘No, something really happened and I am scared’ so I just came straight up here,” Pendleton told Action News.

Eventually after conducting their searches, Philadelphia police lifted their lockdown. A letter concerning the lockdown was sent home to parents to inform them of the gun scare.

Philadelphia police later found the teen of the concerned mother with another friend off school property. The two were taken into custody.

North Philadelphia police have yet to find the gun in that matter and are continuing to search.