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Officers stationed at the school separated the students and found one of them, a 17-year-old, carrying a handgun, Passaic County Prosecutor Camelia M. Valdes and Acting Paterson Police Chief Bert Ribeiro announced Sunday, Dec. 18.
A 14-year-old involved in the Friday morning hallway brawl was seized after he was “overheard by responding officers threatening to commit a shooting in the school,” they said in a prepared release.
Moments later, police found a 15-year-old student banging on the school doors, which had been locked down because of the brawl.
He, too, was overheard threatening to commit a school shooting, Valdes and Ribeiro said.
Police seized him, as well, as 18-year-old Desmar Ferguson, who was with him.
Both were carrying loaded guns, they said.
Ferguson was sent to the Passaic County Jail to await a first appearance in Central Judicial Processing Court in Paterson on charges of resisting arrest, obstruction, possession of stolen property and possession of a handgun.
Both minors were issued delinquency complaints.
The younger teen was released after police accused him of making terroristic threats.
The older teen was sent to the Essex County Juvenile Detention Center to await closed-door hearings in the Family Part of Superior Court in Paterson for a variety of weapons offenses that include possession of a firearm in an educational institution.
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