Cops: Mom Put Gun in 7-Year-Old's Backpack

She says she didn't mean for him to bring it to school
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 18, 2013 2:19 PM CST
Updated Jan 20, 2013 7:00 PM CST
Cops: Mom Put Gun in 7-Year-Old's Backpack
A.22 caliber semi-automatic handgun that police say a 7-year-old boy brought to his Queens elementary school in his backpack, Jan. 17, 2013, is seen in this file photo.   (AP Photo/New York City Police Department)

A Queens woman has been charged with criminal possession of a weapon, endangering the welfare of a child, and more, after leaving a .22-caliber pistol and a flare gun in her 7-year-old son's backpack—something the 7-year-old discovered only after arriving at school. Deborah Farley, 53, says she put the guns in the boy's Batman backpack before going out with it this week, and forgot to take them out before sending him to school, police tell the New York Times.

When she realized what she'd done, she rushed to the school to try to retrieve the weapon. By then her son had already found the flare gun and given it to a classmate. When his mother asked him to hand over the gun, he said he'd given it away—not realizing the .22 was in his bag, too. Farley alerted the principal, who locked down the school and alerted authorities. Now the boy and his 9-year-old brother have been taken into protective custody. Their father, Walter Orozco, 56, says things could have ended more tragically, because his son is often bullied. (More Deborah Farley stories.)

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