The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office arrested a 5th grade student from Frank Elementary in Guadalupe after learning that the student made threats to stab another student at school for “snitching”.
This comes just weeks after Town Councilmen, Andrew Sanchez, denounced Sheriff Arpaio for a “publicity stunt” aimed at school safety and the Sheriff’s School Posse Program.
Sheriff’s detectives yesterday were called to the elementary school located at 8409 S. Avenida Del Yaqui, Guadalupe, by school officials who were notified of the plot and found the student in possession of a knife in his backpack.
Sheriff Joe Arpaio says “everyone seems to be zeroing in on guns, however there are many other tools that can be utilized to injure and kill people.” Arpaio continued “it is cases like this where my posse could have been a first responder had something tragic occurred, but thankfully didn’t.”
Sheriff’s detectives interviewed the 10 year-old suspect at which point he admitted that he took the knife to school on Tuesday with the intention of stabbing the victim in the stomach. The suspect also said he was going to wear a black knit beanie, found wrapped around the knife in the students backpack, over his face in order to disguise his appearance. Finally, the suspect told deputies he tried to recruit other students to assist, however they ultimately reported the incident to teachers.
Sheriff Arpaio says “in the past month we have had 2 incidents which could have ended with tragedy. My detectives ended a plan at Red Mountain High School weeks ago where students were the target of a murder plot by a 16 year old student.”
In response to the Red Mountain High murder plot and the Sandy Hook slayings, Sheriff Arpaio had ordered his volunteer armed Posse to patrol schools as a deterrent to any violent criminal activities occurring at schools.
The Sheriff intended these patrols to be temporary until the local or federal government can fix the serious issue of school violence. However Guadalupe Town Councilmen Andrew Sanchez disagreed asking The Sheriff to “refrain from sending posse into Guadalupe” because they are under qualified and it harasses Guadalupe residents and its students. Despite the councilman’s request, Sheriff Arpaio ordered his posse to continue patrolling in Guadalupe.
The 10 year old suspect was booked in Maricopa County Juvenile Detention on charges of threatening and intimidating, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and disruption of an educational facility, all class three felonies.