16-year-old boy arrested for threatening to shoot another student at Dysart High School

EL MIRAGE, AZ - A 16-year-old boy was arrested on Tuesday by Maricopa County Sheriff's deputies after he brought a gun to Dysart High School in El Mirage, and allegedly threatened to shoot another student.

MCSO Sgt. Brandon Jones said deputies were alerted to the situation while doing a welfare check, after getting reports a 14-year-old boy was absent from school and that he may be suicidal.

When deputies arrived at the boy’s house in Youngtown, the boy’s mother told deputies that her son was threatened by the 16-year-old suspect.

The woman said the suspect showed her son a gun at a school bus stop on Tuesday morning, and said he was going to kill him.

MCSO deputies waited for the suspect to get off the afternoon school bus, and proceeded to question him.

Deputies found a loaded .25 caliber hand gun in the 16-year-old’s possession.

The suspect admitted to taking the gun onto the bus and to Dysart High School.

The boy is being charged with aggravated assault, possession of firearm by prohibited persons, misconduct involving weapons, and theft.