Armed Madison High School student arrested following lockdown

Kim Hunt, right, comforts her daughter Katie Hunt, a 9th grader at Madison, who spent 50 minuets in a supply closet in complete darkness before they were given the all clear. Parents pickup their kids, students at Madison High School, where a student, a gunman, was apprehended for taking weapons to school. Monday, April 28, 2014. less Kim Hunt, right, comforts her daughter Katie Hunt, a 9th grader at Madison, who spent 50 minuets in a supply closet in complete darkness before they were given the all clear. Parents pickup their kids, ... more Photo: Bob Owen, San Antonio Express-News Photo: Bob Owen, San Antonio Express-News Image 1 of / 23 Caption Close Armed Madison High School student arrested following lockdown 1 / 23 Back to Gallery

SAN ANTONIO — A Madison High School student was arrested Monday after weapons were found in his backpack, which caused the campus to be locked down, police said.

Brendan Tarwater, 17, was charged with one count of possessing a weapon in a prohibited place and one count of making a terroristic threat. His bond was set at $300,000, or $150,000 for each charge.

A woman who answered the phone at a home believed to be that of his family declined comment.

The school was placed on lockdown around 10:15 a.m. Officials lifted the lockdown by 11:28 a.m. and released the students back to their classes.

The male student, 17, had three loaded guns and a 12-inch knife, said Aubrey Chancellor, a spokeswoman for North East Independent School District. One was an AK-47, the others were handguns, a .45 caliber and .22 caliber, with additional magazines in his backpack, she added.

It is unknown whether he was planning a mass shooting, but Chancellor said he told district police that he intended to make some demands over the intercom system, although she did not know what those were. He told authorities that “if the demands were not met, he had planned on committing violence,” Chancellor said. She did not know whether he had a history of violence or mental health issues.

“Everyone is safe,” Chancellor said.

The student's parents had reported him as a runaway that morning and arrived at the school after it was determined that he was there, Chancellor said. During a meeting with school officials and their son, the student's parents asked that his backpack be checked, Chancellor said. After finding two loaded guns and the knife, his parents asked him where the third gun was, Chancellor said.

“So it seems at this point that the guns came from the student's home,” the district spokeswoman added.

The third gun was found in a trash can in the bathroom.

Police and K-9 officers were at the school, which is in the 5000 block of Stahl Road.

“Obviously, we'll continue talking with him to determine what his full intentions were,” Chancellor said. “Right now, we're just thankful that whatever he had planned was averted.”

Classes continued after the lockdown was lifted about 11:30 am, but a crowd of parents lined up to pick up their teenagers.

Parents said they were worried after hearing that between four and seven students had brought the loaded guns -- a rumor that Chancellor said was false.

Daisy Aleman, whose daughter Brittany Arizola is a sophomore, received an automated call just before 11 a.m. notifying her that the school was on lockdown. The call did not specify the reason for the lockdown, but Aleman found out about the loaded guns through social media.

“I was shaking,” said Aleman, who had kept Brittany home from school Thursday, after someone sent an email to Northside Independent School District officials threatening that a mass shooting would occur that day at an unnamed school.

When an announcement was made over loudspeakers Monday that the school was on lockdown, Brittany thought it was a drill. She, like many other students, sent text messages to her mother, and learned from text messages and social media that someone had brought loaded guns.

Freshman Katie Hunt, 15, said she and her entire class spent 50 minutes in a supply closet during the lockdown. The entire class was on their phones and Katie was also constantly in text message communication with her mother, Kim Hunt.

Kim Hunt said the threat from last Thursday jumped immediately to her mind.

“Sure they're going to say they're going to do it one day, but they're really not going to do it, and I feel that today was the day,” Kim Hunt said.

Kim Hunt went to collect her daughter as soon as she heard she could do so.

“It was just crazy,” said Katie through tears as her mother walked her out of school. “You couldn't believe it happened.”

Despite the rumor mill, students said they did not know who was arrested. Some students said they hoped the school would ramp up security and maybe install metal detectors.

“I just hope it's not a friend, because you would think your friends are good, safe people,” said Natalee Northcutt, 16, a sophomore.

Chancellor said that while she understands parents instinctually want to pick up their children when they're notified of a lockdown, that school officials recommend they not swarm the campus.

“It's certainly upsetting to receive one of those messages and parents instincts, of course, is to go get their child,” she said. “But police are there and they need to be able to do their job as efficiently as possible with as few distractions, which is why we ask parents to remain calm and know their children are safe but to not go to the school.”

Chancellor said that students have brought weapons to the high school in the past but noted that high schools in other school districts have also had to contend with similar safety concerns.

The incident comes days after an anonymous person threatened via email to carry out a mass shooting at a school. The email, sent to several employees of Northside Independent District elementary schools, said the shooting would take place last Thursday. Schools were placed on heightened alert, but no such incident took place.

Although the San Antonio Police Department determined that the threat was not credible, hundreds of parents kept their students home. School districts, which are partly funded by the state through average daily attendance numbers, lost millions in attendance revenue.

Staff writer Drew Joseph contributed to this article.

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