GALVESTON, Texas - A 7-year-old boy leaving school found a loaded gun in his backpack, and his mother's boyfriend has been charged with putting it there.
Anthony Brisick, 27, of Galveston, was charged Wednesday with a misdemeanor for allegedly making the weapon available to a minor.
The boy's mother told investigators her live-in boyfriend kept the .25-caliber pistol in his car, which broke down recently, forcing him to walk home.
Rather than leave the gun in the car, he put it in the boy's backpack but forgot to remove it, she told officers.
The boy, a second-grader at Alamo Elementary School, yelled that there was a gun in his backpack as classmates prepared to go home Tuesday, said Eugene Lewis, chief of the Galveston Independent School District police.
The child's teacher took the gun and contacted police.
The gun had six bullets in the clip and one in the chamber, Lewis said.
He didn't know if the safety was on.
Although Lewis said the boy acted appropriately, the district suspended him for three days to investigate.