A Queens woman was arrested yesterday after her son sparked a gun scare that put a Far Rockaway elementary school on lockdown. Police are blaming Deborah Farley, 53, for letting her 7-year-old son Tyler show up at school with a gun in his backpack. Sources tell the Post she had no idea the gun was in the bag, and there's a theory it may have been stashed there by one of Tyler's older brothers, under the assumption that Tyler would not be attending school because of the bus strike.
After Farley returned home from dropping Tyler off at the Wave Preparatory Elementary School, sources say someone in the house informed her there was a gun in the boy's bag. According to this version of the incident, she raced back to the school and tried to pull Tyler from class, claiming he had a dentist appointment. But when she failed to find the gun, she alerted school officials, who put the school on lockdown. School safety agents ultimately found a .22 caliber pistol, bullets in a plastic bag, and a magazine with ten rounds in it. They also recovered a flare gun.
During the search, students were herded into the backs of classrooms and made to silently crouch down. “I was crying," one 9-year-old girl tells the Post. "I was scared. I was hiding under the table for so long I couldn’t feel my legs." A fourth grade boy tells NBC New York he was afraid "the person was gonna find us." In a statement, the DOE said, "A lockdown was called at the PS 215Q campus by a member of the staff of WAVE Preparatory Academy. A gun was found in the bookbag of a second grade student. The gun was confiscated. NYPD, School Safety were on site. Parent of the student was notified."
In addition to being notified, Farley was also arrested. According to the NYPD press office, she's charged with Criminal Possession of a Weapon (Firearm), Criminal Possession of a Weapon (Firearm / School Grounds), Endangering the Welfare of a Child, and Unlawful Possession of a Weapon.
