Teen arrested after gunfight outside Brooklyn high school
Two gun-toting teens opened fire on each other outside a Brooklyn high school, just days after police found five guns that were carried into city schools last week.
No one was hurt in the shootout, which erupted Monday at 10:15 a.m. outside Midwood High School. Police arrested one of the young gunmen, a 16-year-old boy, and recovered a loaded 9-mm. Glock pistol. A source said the young suspect is a member of the G-Stone Crips. NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea tweeted that the suspect has two other gun-related arrests in the past eight months.
A source familiar with the incident said two students at the Brooklyn public school got into an argument, then went outside and exchanged shots behind the building, on E. 26th St. and Glenwood Road.
The school was placed on lockdown following exchange of three or four shots, sources said.
School safety agents flagged down a patrol car and identified both shooters, one of whom was caught in an apartment building across the street.
Education Department wouldn’t confirm that the teens involved in the shooting were students at Midwood, or whether they had the guns at school before the shooting.
Midwood, which enrolls roughly 4,500 kids, does not have metal detectors. Officials from the union representing school safety agents said the school had seven agents and one supervisor on duty Monday, down from 13 agents and one supervisor in 2019.
“This incident was not school-related and did not happen on school property. The NYPD responded to shots fired and recovered a gun at a private residence,” the Education Department said in a statement.
The shootout came after five city school students were caught with guns in Queens, the Bronx and Brooklyn on Wednesday and Thursday of last week.
Two of the guns were turned up by metal detector scanning, one was discovered during a brawl, and two were reported by other students.
Mayor de Blasio and Schools Chancellor Meisha Porter praised school safety agents for their role in recovering the weapons.
Police made arrests in all five of the cases.
The rash of gun discoveries reignited a thorny debate about police presence in city schools.
Some parents and advocates called on the city to boost the number of school safety agents and metal detectors in response to the weapon scares.
Teamsters Local 237, the union representing school safety agents, has complained of a labor shortage after 8% of agents didn’t comply with the city’s vaccine mandate and the officials hired a smaller incoming class this year.
NYPD officials said on Monday there are 3,200 school safety agents currently working in schools, down from a high of 5,000.
City Hall plans to shift supervision of the school safety force from the NYPD to the Education Department, but the move won’t take effect until next year — leaving the final decision about whether to proceed with the transfer to the next mayor.
Critics of school police have warned that increasing police presence will further traumatize students without addressing the root causes of their behavior.
De Blasio said Monday he plans to set up unannounced metal detector scanning at an additional 30 schools and send more NYPD officers to schools with safety concerns during arrival and dismissal.
