Police identify student accused of taking gun to Maumelle High School

Maumelle High School was on lockdown Tuesday after a gun was found in a classroom.
Maumelle High School was on lockdown Tuesday after a gun was found in a classroom.

Maumelle Police Department officials have identified the 18-year-old student who is accused of taking a handgun to Maumelle High School on Tuesday.

James Austin, 18, of Little Rock is charged with possessing a firearm on a school campus, a class D felony, according to a statement from police.

Maumelle High School was on lockdown for several hours Tuesday after Austin purportedly was found with a handgun in a classroom, police said.

Police were called late Tuesday morning with the report of a student with a handgun.

"We responded immediately to the location, and when we got here, the school had already initiated its lockdown procedure," Maumelle Police Department Capt. Jim Hansard said.

After questioning students at the high school, Hansard said, police were able to isolate a specific classroom where the gun was located.

"Once we did that, several minutes later, we did recover a handgun," he said. "It was in a bookshelf in a classroom." Austin was then taken into custody.

It wasn't immediately known whether Austin had told anyone before Tuesday that he planned to bring the gun to school.

Hansard said Maumelle police are gathering a lot of information from witnesses at the school.

"We're kind of pilfering through that right now as to what's accurate and what's not. There was a lot of merit to these witnesses. They went straight to the administration, just like we would have wanted them to," Hansard said.

Hansard said there is no longer a threat at the school, and the Pulaski County Special School District said on its Twitter account that the lockdown was lifted around 1 p.m.

"We want to tell the parents out there that the school is safe. This situation has been dealt with by the administration of the school and the police department," Hansard said. "[Police] are still at the school currently, but it's just for evidence purposes."

Hansard said the Maumelle Police Department participated in a lockdown drill on Monday.

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Maumelle Police Department

James Austin, 18, of Little Rock.

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