The .38-caliber revolver smuggled into a Queens school by a second-grader was given to the boy's older brother by their mom's ex-con lover, authorities said yesterday.
Shamel Miller allegedly bestowed the twisted gift upon 14-year-old Darius Clarke so he could protect himself in high school, the boy's mom told cops.
The illegal handgun's serial number even had been scratched away in an attempt to make it difficult for cops to trace, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.
"My boyfriend came into my house and shows me and Darius a gun. He says Darius needs it for protection at school," the mother, Andrea Clarke, told police Thursday after her younger son brought the weapon to his elementary school.
"I told him to get it out of my house," Clarke, a 35-year-old NYPD traffic agent, recalled, according to authorities.
Despite her objections, Clarke did not take the revolver away from her 14-year-old son, police said. She merely told him to get rid of it.
But he ignored her and hid it under a mattress inside the family's 77th St. home in Ozone Park, and his 7-year-old brother later found it, police said.
The younger boy, whose name the Daily News is withholding because of his age, brought the gun to Public School 63 in Ozone Park on Thursday and showed it to classmates - terrifying them, officials said.
Alerted by a student, the classroom teacher, Debra Mergenthal, approached the 7-year-old boy and asked him to hand over whatever was inside his pocket.
The boy gave her the gun, which she only later learned wasn't loaded.
"For the safety of the children and the school I have nothing to say," Mergenthal said yesterday.
Clarke was arraigned yesterday on charges of second-degree reckless endangerment and endangering the welfare of a child. She was ordered held in lieu of $15,000 bail.
Her 14-year-old son also was hit with reckless endangerment charges.
Clarke's boyfriend, who was wanted on an outstanding warrant and went into hiding after the gun surfaced, was tracked down by detectives about 5 p.m. yesterday, police said.
Miller, 23, was charged with endangering the welfare of a child and weapons crimes.
According to criminal records, Miller was arrested in March 2005 for beating and robbing a man of $1,500 on a Brooklyn street. He was placed on probation, and then racked up four other arrests, including a November 2006 bust for allegedly firing a gun into the air in a Brooklyn courtyard.
He spent a couple days in jail, then blew off several probation appointments, police said. He had been on the lam ever since.
AM New York: Boy brings gun to school, mom and bro arrested...
A Queens second-grader brought an unloaded handgun to school Thursday, and police later arrested the boy's mother and his 14-year-old brother.
Andrea Clarke, 35, of Ozone Park, a city traffic enforcement agent, was charged with endangering the welfare of a child and reckless endangerment. Her 14-year-old son was charged with reckless endangerment.
After Clark's 7-year-old, a student at PS 63 in Ozone Park, showed a .38-caliber gun to a classmate, that classmate told a teacher, police said.
| |
WNBC-TV...NEW YORK -- A second grader brought a gun to his Queens elementary school. Police have arrested the boy's mother and brother. A teacher was able to get the gun from the boy after hearing from other students that he was showing it off at Public School 63 in Ozone Park. The boy's mother - 35-year-old Andrea Clarke - who is an NYPD traffic agent - was arrested on charges of endangering the welfare of a child. And the boy's 14-year-old brother was also charged with reckless endangerment because he brought the gun home. Police said the mother was charged because she did not take the gun away from her teenage son. She only told him to get rid of it.
NY-1... Elementary School Student Brings Gun To School
Watch Video...
A city traffic agent was arrested Thursday for giving her 14-year-old son a gun. Police say the 14-year-old put the gun under a mattress, but his seven-year-old brother found the weapon and brought it to P.S. 63 in Ozone Park on Thursday and showed it off. The teacher took the unloaded gun from him and called police. The mother is charged with endangering the welfare of a child and reckless endangerment. The 14-year-old is charged with reckless endangerment.
