By Josh Verges - Argus Leader
January 11, 2007
The gunman who locked down Axtell Park Middle School for two hours
last month was hunting squirrels, police said Wednesday.
A teacher driving back to the school Dec. 19 reported seeing someone
holding a gun out the passenger window of a car one block north of the
school. He alerted police, who searched the school while students stayed
in their classrooms.
Doug Simmons, the school's resource officer, said two students from
an unnamed Sioux Falls high school have been identified as the driver
and passenger in the car. The students, 16 and 17, will face juvenile
charges for disorderly conduct, he said.
The students and a rear-seat passenger got rid of the gun - it turned
out to be a BB gun that looked like a law enforcement handgun - and hid
in a friend's house while police searched the school, Simmons said.
"They were pointing a gun at squirrels. It had nothing to do with
Axtell Park Middle School," Simmons said.
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