Cops: Palm Bay teen pulls fake gun on bus aide

Special needs student faces aggravated assault charges

PALM BAY, Fla. – A Palm Bay special needs student faces aggravated assault charges after police say he pulled a realistic-looking toy shotgun on a bus aide who was picking him up from school.

Police said the 16-year-old Riverdale Country School student was being picked up by the bus around 9 a.m. on Tuesday at his home off of Freeman Road when the bus driver told him he couldn't bring a PlayStation on the bus.

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"We received a call that a kid was involved in some sort of altercation with a bus, possibly involving a knife," said Sgt. Dave Weber Palm Bay Police Department. "The bus driver was visibly shaken by the incident, he explained the incident stemmed over a PlayStation the young kid wanted to bring on the school bus, which is not allowed."

Police said the bus driver then asked the student to bring the equipment back into the house and as the bus aide went up to talk to the child's mom, the student was holding what appeared to be a rifle pointing at the bus aide . It was later determined the gun was fake.

"The bus driver saw it, he immediately turned and ran back to the bus," Weber said. "It is in fact a fake shotgun but it looks very real. It would be one that anybody would look at and go 'Oh my God, what's this kid doing with this shotgun?'"

The student has been taken to the Palm Bay Police Department under the charge of aggravated assault. Police said bus aide will pursue charges

Police said the teen is a special needs student with several medical impairments but understood that what he did was wrong.

It's not clear if the student will be suspended from school. Authorities continue to investigate.

Watch Local 6 for more on this story.


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