Lima Senior student said he needed gun for protection

LIMA - The student who brought a loaded gun with him to Lima Senior High School on Friday said he did so to protect himself.

"People were telling me that they were going to shoot at me after school," Christian D. Walker said during his detention hearing Monday.

Walker, 17, told Lima Police Department officials the same thing after being taken into custody Friday afternoon. He's since been charged with delinquency by carrying a concealed weapon and delinquency by possession of a deadly weapon in a school safety zone.

He's also charged with delinquency by receiving stolen property because the gun was stolen. Walker told Officer Deana Lauck that someone had given him the gun and he did not know it was stolen.

Lauck recommended to Allen County Juvenile Court Chief Magistrate Robert Whitlach that Walker remain at the Allen County Juvenile Detention Center because of the seriousness of the charges, and for his own safety and that of other Lima schools pupils.

Whitlach agreed and declined requests from family members who urged him to release Walker to them.

"I spoke with him yesterday and asked if he understood the seriousness of everything and he said yes," said his father, who would not identify himself.

"He is not a child that is a threat to anybody. He is not that type of person at all," his grandmother added.

Police were called at about 2 p.m. Friday after Principal Doug Kent found a 9 mm pistol in Walker's book bag. Someone notified Kent that he possibly had a gun, Lauck said. It was not reported who notified Kent.

Walker was called to the school office and came with the book bag, she said. Police took into evidence the book bag, a Taurus 9 mm pistol, 24 rounds of Winchester ammunition and school identification.

Lauck said in court Monday that Walker told her he brought the gun for protection.

"He evidently has been having trouble with a certain group of young men," she said.

Walker's father also indicated that his son has had trouble with "several groups of guys."

Lima Senior students were put on lockdown during the Friday incident and parents received a recorded message saying the school was in lockdown while a weapon was taken from a student.

An extra police presence was at Lima Senior on Monday and may be in the next few days as well, Superintendent Karel Oxley said. The school's routine went on as normal Monday, she said.

"Everyone was focused on academics and it was a regular day at Lima Senior High," she said. "The general feedback from the staff and parents has been that they appreciated the clear, immediate communication. They recognized that there was no threat to any student and they appreciated the hard work of staff to get it resolved."

The school will move forward with expulsion proceedings, Oxley said. Walker's parents would have the opportunity to appeal an expulsion decision.

As she did following Friday's incident, Oxley urged parents, guardians and neighbors to keep an eye out for issues and problems occurring in the city, and to make sure weapons are not accessible to pupils.

"We really need to monitor where children are and what they are doing," she said. "The level of vigilance even needs to be stepped up even more than in the past. We certainly work to provide safe schools, but it is absolutely a community effort."