HOMESTEAD, Fla. – A South Florida father is facing a felony charge after his 6-year-old daughter brought a gun to school.
According to Homestead police, officers responded to the Keys Gate Charter School, located at 2000 SE 28th Ave. after administrators were alerted about a student who was found with a gun.
Police said it was a Kindergarten student and that the firearm was found in the child’s backpack.
Investigators determined the father of the child, 39-year-old Reginald McCoy, put the gun in the backpack and forgot it was in there when the student was brought to school, police said.
No injuries were reported.
A representative for Keys Gate Charter School provided Local 10 News with a copy of a statement that was sent home to parents. It read, in part:
“We are so proud of a student who saw a suspicious item and immediately reported this to a trusted adult. The item turned out to be an unloaded weapon brought by a young student. We immediately involved law enforcement and no students or staff were ever in any danger.”
According to police, the gun was seen by the child’s teacher after she was “showing other students her bookbag.”
After the teacher went to go check her backpack, that’s when she noticed a 40 Caliber Magnum Research aka “MR40 Eagle,” sitting inside.
According to the arrest report, officers then met with the girl’s mother who said they were planning to pawn the gun with her father later placing it in his daughter’s bookbag before leaving the house for school.
McCoy was booked into the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center and is facing charges of child neglect, which is a third-degree felony and culpable negligence.
He appeared in court on Friday afternoon where a judge set his bond at $5,000.