Details emerge about gunfire in Muscogee school classroom. 2 students charged with crime

More details have emerged about the accidental gunfire that injured a student in a Columbus middle school two months ago after an open public records request was filed.

Two 13-year-olds, one male and one female, were charged with possession of a weapon on school property following the Sept. 28 incident at Rothschild Leadership Academy, according to the Muscogee County School District Police Department’s report.

MCSD released the report in response to the Ledger-Enquirer’s request under the Georgia Open Records Act, which requires government agencies to provide documents to the public unless exempt under the law.

Here’s how the incident happened at Rothschild that day, according to the MCSD police report:

‘There was a boom and a kid was bleeding’

On Sept. 28, at approximately 1:35 p.m., MCSD police officer Nikki Martin, who was assigned to Rothschild, heard commotion and someone yelling on the school radio for her to go to a teacher’s classroom.

Martin also heard staff in the front office yelling, “He is bleeding from his private area.” Martin asked another officer to go to the front office while she ran to the classroom.

In the classroom, Martin was told, “There was a boom and a kid was bleeding.” Martin also heard from an assistant principal, “The kid was reportedly shot.”

Martin called for more officers to respond to Rothschild and requested EMS.

Gun found

The assistant principal gave Martin a student’s Chromebook case. Martin found a black handgun inside the case’s front pocket.

Martin secured the gun in her office. Then she was called to the principal’s office, where she saw the principal wrapping the upper left leg of a male student. Martin applied ice to slow the bleeding.

Martin asked the student what happened. The student said he didn’t know.

Another student implicated

Martin asked the student to whom the gun belonged. He named a female student.

Martin found in the Chromebook case paperwork that confirmed the female student’s name.

EMS arrived and transported the male student to Piedmont Columbus Regional’s midtown hospital.

Martin spoke to the female student’s father and asked whether there were weapons inside their home. He said no.

Other officers arrived on the scene and secured the perimeter of the school to help with crowd control.

‘Had to have been planted’

The female student was brought to the front office, where the principal asked whether the gun belonged to her. She denied knowing anything about the gun. She said it “had to have been planted” in her Chromebook case by a male student she named. That student’s guardian was contacted and summoned to the school.

Meanwhile, the other students in the classroom where the incident happened were separated in the cafeteria as they waited for MCSD police officers to interview them.

Showing off the gun

From the interviews, the officers learned the suspected male student was showing off the gun in the classroom before it discharged and wounded him. The female student to whom the Chromebook case belonged was in the restroom when the gun discharged.

Students said they saw smoke coming from the Chromebook case following a noise that sounded like a balloon popping. Students also said they saw the suspected student drop the case.

The report doesn’t say where the teacher was when the student was showing off the gun and when it discharged. MCSD officials didn’t answer that question before publication.

Back at the front office, Martin received permission from the female student’s mother to interview her.

The female student told Martin what she told the principal: She didn’t know anything about the gun, and it must have been planted in her Chromebook case.

Criminal charges filed

Martin briefed MCSD Police Chief Greg Arp on what she learned during the interviews with the students. Martin told Arp that she would charge the student who possessed the gun when it discharged and the student who had the gun in her Chromebook case with the crime of possessing a weapon on school property.

The female student was taken into custody and transported to MCSD police headquarters for fingerprinting and processing. Martin drove her to the Aaron Cohn Regional Youth Detention Center.

When he was released from the hospital, the male student was taken into custody and transported to the RYDC.

‘I’m gonna be honest’

While they waited for processing at RYDC, the director asked Martin why the students were brought there. When the female student overheard Martin say neither student disclosed who brought the gun to school, she spoke up and said, “I’m gonna be honest.”

The female student said she was informed about a threat that someone supposedly was going to kill her. That morning before school, after her parents had left their house, she put the gun in her Chromebook case and got on the bus.

The female student said she showed the male student the gun during first period. When she went to the restroom during fifth period, the male student must have taken the gun out of her Chromebook case, the female student said.

The L-E wasn’t able to learn the status of the criminal cases before publication.

MCSD officials also didn’t answer whether anyone else was criminally charged in this case and whether the case remains under investigation.