UNION COUNTY, N.C. — A student is in custody after deputies found a gun inside a car on a high school campus, according to the Union County Sheriff’s Office.
In a Facebook post, deputies said a K-9 officer alerted deputies to two different students’ vehicles at Forest Hills High School. They found a .38 caliber handgun in one of them, they said.
Deputies added the gun wasn’t loaded when they found it and to their knowledge, it wasn’t taken into the school at any point during the school day.
In addition to the gun, deputies found a set of brass knuckles in the student’s car. In the second car, the sheriff’s office said they found one round of rifle ammo but no weapon.
The sheriff’s office arrested 18-year-old Jose Cruz for having the gun on school grounds and is petitioning to charge a 16-year-old they say is also connected to it.
Union County Public Schools disciplined both students, deputies said.
“The weapon recovered during this search has no place on the campus of one of our local schools,” Sheriff Eddie Cathey said. “We remain committed to working with UCPS administrators to keep our school campuses safe and secure learning environments. I am proud of the professional investigation conducted in this case and I am thankful that our K-9 teams were in the right place at the right time to identify a potential threat and address it immediately.”
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