Texas teen arrested in alleged Uvalde copycat attempt

Officers were able to identify the male suspect as a juvenile student of Berkner High School.

 Law enforcement personnel guard the scene of a suspected shooting near Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, US May 24, 2022 (photo credit: REUTERS/MARCO BELLO)
Law enforcement personnel guard the scene of a suspected shooting near Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, US May 24, 2022
(photo credit: REUTERS/MARCO BELLO)

Texas police arrested a high school student on Wednesday morning after a real pistol and a fake rifle were found in his car, parked outside of his school in Richardson, Texas. This comes just one day after the deadly shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas and eleven days after the murders at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York. 

According to the Richarson Police Department's statement, they received a phone call midmorning on Wednesday reporting a young man holding what appeared to be a rifle, walking toward Berkner High School.

Police conducted a thorough search of the school and found the suspect already inside, without any weapons. Further investigation led to the discovery of one AK-47 style pistol and a replica AR-15 style rifle in the suspect's car. 

Recent similar events

The United States has already seen two mass shootings in the month of May. The first was a racially-motivated attack on a grocery store in Buffalo, New York on May 14 by an openly racist and antisemitic extremist. The second was a school shooting in Uvalde, Texas on May 24. Between the two events, twelve adults and nineteen children were killed. The shooter in Uvalde, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, was also killed at the scene. 

Emergency response

FOX4 reports that Berkner High School and a nearby elementary school went into lockdown for approximately one hour that morning, during the police's search. 

The teen was arrested and charged with Unlawful Carrying Weapons in a Weapon-Free School Zone.