Spanaway teen steals guns; sells for cash, weed, vaping supplies

Pierce County is now bringing the 13-year-old boy who aimed a rifle at his fellow students to court. But the charges have only grown since he was arrested Wednesday.

The boy, a seventh grade student at Spanay’s Cedarcrest Middle School, allegedly stole three guns, and ammo, from his grandfather’s gun safe, then sold two of the firearms to other teens for cash, marijuana, and vaping supplies.

He has been charged with two counts of assault, two counts of the unlawful possession of a firearm, and trafficking stolen property.

School officials were made aware of the 13-year-old’s activities when two 13-year-old female students reported that the boy aimed a rifle at them at a bus stop before class. The teen boy was aiming at them from a nearby yard.

“Nobody is injured, but we do have two frightened students who had a firearm aimed at them,” Troyer said.

“We get reports of kids with guns, but in this particular case we had somebody who actually displayed a rifle and pointed it at students,” he added. “They did the right thing. They went to school and reported it. The school was able to the get the suspect kid out of his classroom and into an office at 8 o’clock this morning and called our deputies.”

The boy attempted to flee when school officials took him out of class. But they were able to detain him until deputies arrived. The suspected student told deputies that he did aim a rifle at two girls, but he didn’t mean to, according to the police report. He also told deputies where to find the gun he was using; he stashed it in the woods near the bus stop.

“We recovered [the rifle], along with a backpack with 300 rounds of ammo, and ammo to other guns,” said Det. Ed Troyer with the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department. “Turns out, he had stolen the gun and the ammo from his grandfather’s gun safe.”

But that is not all the 13 year old allegedly stole. Other guns and ammo were also missing. But the boy would not cooperate with detectives who were searching for the missing firearms.

“He is not being cooperative; he’s giving us multiple stories,” Troyer said after arresting the teen.

Detectives eventually discovered that the teen suspect had sold a .44 caliber handgun to another teen, and a rifle to yet another. One teen paid the suspect for a gun with vaping materials and vape juice. A second teen gave the suspect $120 in cash, an ounce of marijuana and other paraphernalia for a gun.

So far only one teen admitted to trading for one of the stolen guns.