DeLand High School Student Arrested For Bringing Gun To School

Date Added: January 12, 2017 2:25 pm

Gary Davidson
Public Information Officer

DELAND HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT ARRESTED FOR BRINGING GUN TO SCHOOL

A 9^th-grade student at DeLand High School was arrested Thursday morning after a gun was found in his backpack. The 15-year-old boy stole the gun and some money from his grandfather’s safe. There were no reports of the boy threatening anyone with the firearm. He told the arresting Volusia County Sheriff’s deputy that he was planning to give the gun to a friend.

School administrators were alerted Thursday after the student, Dominic Lewis, became confrontational with a maintenance worker while in the school’s tardy room. During the disturbance, a teacher in the room overheard Lewis telling another student that he had $1,000 in his backpack. But he also said he had something else -- something that might cause him to get arrested. That’s when the teacher notified school administrators. Lewis was removed from the room and taken to the office along with the Sheriff’s Office’s school resource deputy assigned to DeLand High School. When told that his backpack was going to be searched, Lewis said he had more than just money in it. The search revealed a Glock 19, semi-automatic pistol in a holster. There was a magazine in the gun and a second one in the backpack, both loaded with bullets. However, there was no round chambered in the gun.

Lewis said he was planning to give the gun to an adult acquaintance and that he had no intention of using it or harming anyone. While his grandfather said he didn’t want to press charges for theft of the gun and money, the Sheriff’s Office arrested Lewis for possession of a firearm on school property and transported him to the Volusia Regional Juvenile Detention Center in Daytona Beach.