No charges for officer who left gun at Kenowa Hills HS
ALPINE TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WOOD) — A Kent County officer will not face charges after leaving a handgun at Kenowa Hills High School last month, the prosecutor’s office has decided.
On April 17, a Kent County Sheriff’s Marine Safety Officer was at Kenowa Hills High School to teach a boater’s safety class when he left a loaded Glock handgun in a bathroom stall.
Kent County officer leaves gun at Kenowa Hills HS
Kent County Prosecutor Chris Becker said hallway video footage showed the officer entering a restroom with a gun in his holster. When he left about 10 minutes later, that gun was no longer visible in the holster.
It was later found by two students, who immediately reported it.
“They did exactly what you’d hope every kid would do, (which) is go find an adult. They saw it. It was lying on the toilet paper dispenser. And nobody touched it, nobody played with it, nobody took it out,” Becker said.
In February, legislation took effect in Michigan requiring the safe storage of firearms when minors are or are likely to be present.
“There was a lot of circumstances where we may not have appropriate charges, may have had different charges, but the safe storage law kind of fills the gap there,” Becker said.
But because of the way the law is written, Becker said, charges were not filed in this case because no minors ever handled the gun that was left behind.
“Even if they pick it up and maybe take it down the hallway and say, ‘Hey teacher, I found the gun here,’ that could be a violation because they took it out in public. That’s one prong of the statute. The other prong here is if they’re in private or maybe we don’t see it, and they pick it up and start playing around with it, they handle it in a careless, reckless and dangerous manner,” Becker said. “Those are the two prongs that you need and we just didn’t have it here.”
Because the safe storage law is so new, it’s only been used a few times. That means there is no precedent.
“These laws have years of Court of Appeals decisions interpreting certain things. There’s nothing here. So you have to go with the literal translation of the law,” Becker said.
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Though no charges were filed, Becker added that this situation should send a message about safely handling firearms.
“You have to secure them in an appropriate place and in appropriate ways. This is a lesson that things could go bad. Fortunately, they did not, but it could’ve been a real different situation if these kids didn’t act appropriately,” Becker said.
The Kent County Sheriff’s Office said the marine safety officer has been placed on suspension and has been permanently placed in an unarmed position.
“Through the review we realize that this was entirely accidental, however warrants follow through due to the expectations of our agency, our schools, and our community,” the sheriff’s office wrote in a statement.
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