Boy who found gun in backpack said home contains many weapons
The third grader who found his mother’s gun in his backpack at Bracken Elementary School this week told police there “are a lot of weapons at his house,” according to a recently released arrest report.
He had gone to get a paper out of his backpack in class Tuesday when he found the unloaded gun, the report said. He told his teacher, who retrieved the gun and reported it.
The boy told police the firearms in his home are locked in a safe, and he doesn’t know the access code.
School police said a background search revealed the boy’s mother, 36-year-old Iris Guerrero, had faced previous gun-related counts. In March, she was arrested on suspicion of carrying a concealed weapon without a permit, and the arrest was reported to Child Protective Services, the report said.
CPS also was informed in 2013 of an unsecured firearm in Guerrero’s home.
According to the arrest report, Guerrero apologized to police for leaving the gun in her son’s backpack and said she had put it there Friday.
She told police that “when she arrived home, the kids wanted to go play soccer and she put the handgun there knowing the kids did not have school on Monday because of the holiday and forgot to remove it.”
Guerrero was arrested on child abuse and endangerment charges.
While Guerrero was speaking with police at the school Tuesday, officers found the man who dropped her off parked in a red zone in front of the school. When they went to tell him he couldn’t park there, they noticed the car’s registration was expired.
Driver Sebastian Nava-Guerra, 30, said he didn’t have his license and proof of insurance, and police called for a tow truck.
While they waited for the tow truck, officers found another gun in the vehicle and a bag of methamphetamine in Nava-Guerra’s pocket. He told police the drugs were “for personal use,” according to an arrest report.
Nava-Guerra was arrested on suspicion of driving without a valid driver’s license, no proof of insurance, operating an unregistered vehicle, possession of a controlled substance and possessing a firearm as a prohibited person, the report said.
Contact Alexis Egeland at aegeland@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0335. Follow @alexis_egeland on Twitter.