In the heat of the moment Pasco (Fla.) Middle School Principal Jeff Wolff said he did not know the gun he saw in the hand of a teenager threatening one of his students was fake.
“It’s a sickening feeling,” Wolff said. “I wouldn’t say terrified, in a sense for me, but terrified that something could happen to my kids.”
According to Dade City Police, as school was letting out a student at Pasco Middle got into an argument with another teenager that goes to a middle school in Land O' Lakes. Police say the two have a long running feud and it escalated into the victim at Pasco Middle getting a fake gun pointed into his chest and throat.
“We live in a very unsafe world,” Wolff said. “Fortunately, this worked out for the positive. Hopefully we never ever really see the real thing here at Pasco Middle School.
A total of four teens were picked up by police as they ran away from the scene. Three were questioned and released. Only the teen from Land O’ Lakes is charged with aggravated assault.
As Wolff was chasing the teen running with a gun through the neighborhood he said another Good Samaritan even tried to help out.
“There was a woman in the community who saw what was going on. She was here picking up her son in her car and she was kind of helping me out and trying to cut him off and figure out what was going on,” Wolff said.
Administrators will be talking to the Pasco Middle student and his parents to try and figure out what their fight is about and make sure there are no other incidents in the future.
Wolff said police responded in minutes and he is proud of his staff for immediately getting the school locked down.