Police: 14-year-old boy arrested after bringing more than a dozen .22-caliber bullets to school

(Updated: April 1 at 6 a.m.) A Riverhead High School student was arrested yesterday afternoon after bringing more than a dozen loose .22-caliber bullets into the high school, Riverhead Police said in a press release last night. There is no evidence that a rifle or any weapon was present on school grounds, police said. 

Police said the student, a 14-year-old boy, told officers he found the ammunition on a shelf at his brother’s place of business.

After an investigation, police determined that the a .22-caliber rifle is legally owned by a member of the student’s family and “properly secured at a location not at the student’s residence,” according to the police press release.

The student who brought the bullets to school gave one to another student who turned it in to a security guard, police said.

In a letter posted on the district website yesterday afternoon, school Superintendent Augustine Tornatore said one student found a stray bullet in a hallway at the high school and brought it to district administration. A second student  separately came to administration with a matching bullet.

The school was put in a “hold-in-place” response until the student who brought the bullets into school was apprehended, the superintendent’s statement said.

The school was also put into a lockout, which is where the building is secured from a potential threat taking place outside of the building, and then returned to normal conditions, the superintendent said.

At no point were any students, faculty or staff in harm’s way, the district said.

Police said the child who brought the bullets to school was arrested, processed and released on an appearance ticket returnable in Suffolk County Family Court. Police did not specify what charge or charges the student was arrested on.