HUDSON, Fla. — The sheriff’s office is crediting a 3rd-grade student’s quick action with keeping his elementary school safe after they say another student brought a loaded handgun to school.
The incident took place midday at Hudson Elementary School in Pasco County.
The sheriff’s office reports the school’s security guard was approached by a student who told him another classmate had a loaded gun in his backpack and was showing it off in the bathroom.
“He could have had a bad thing on his mind and hurt one of us,” said eight-year-old Blake Johnson, who spoke with 10 News sitting next to his mother after being interviewed by deputies.
“I saw the backpack and I said what’s in there,” Blake recalls. “He responded and said, 'it’s a gun!'”
Blake says he was threatened if he told anyone about what he saw.
“He said if you tell anyone he would shoot me,” recalls Blake.
After the other kids went back to class, Blake says he told the school’s security guard about what he saw. The sheriff’s office says the guard immediately headed to the student’s class and located the loaded handgun in the student’s backpack.
Lori Johnson is Blake’s grandmother and takes care of him after school. She was shocked to hear her grandson’s account of what happened.
“The news came on and said [the gun] was loaded and my knees went out from underneath me,” said Johnson.
“I realized my grandson had been in the bathroom with two boys and a loaded gun," she added.
In a Thursday evening news conference, the sheriff’s office says everything worked because a student spoke up and the school’s security guard took immediate action.
Blake says he’d do it all again.
“I feel good,” said Blake with a smile.
His grandmother agrees.
“I’ve always been proud of him. This is just everything we taught him to do and he did it today," she said.
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