SWAT team responds to cap gun at school

Published 5:33 am Wednesday, February 3, 2010

VANCOUVER, Wash. — The initial 911 report from the Vancouver elementary school was alarming: Shots fired at a school playground. That had police and SWAT officers scrambling Tuesday morning — only to find the weapon was a bright orange cap gun.

Police and school officials say a second-grade boy at Eleanor Roosevelt Elementary School brought the gun and apparently pointed it at two 6-year-olds and fired it, discharging smoke.

The two students told a playground supervisor that another student had fired a gun at them — and the response took off from there. Police spokeswoman Kim Kapp said, “When you have that type of a call, there’s no waiting.”

A SWAT sweep and school evacuation began, but officials said students were back in class a half-hour later.

District spokeswoman Kris Sork said school officials met with the boy and his parents to determine possible punishment.

Information from: The Columbian, www.columbian.com