Police talk teen into giving up rifle at school
NORTHAMPTON, Pa. (AP) -- A teenager distraught over a breakup spent nearly an hour listening to music and smoking in a high school stairwell -- with a loaded rifle on his lap -- before police persuaded him to surrender.
Max Brotzman, 18, had brought the rifle to school Thursday morning in a guitar case, police said. He also brought a hunting knife, a box-cutter, bottle rockets and smoke bombs with him to Northampton Area Senior High School, they said.
Northampton Borough Detective Robert Lindenmoyer, the school principal and others called to the scene at 7:50 a.m. spent 40 minutes talking to Brotzman in an unused stairwell before he surrendered, the detective said.
Brotzman, whose shoulder-length hair completely obscured his face as he was led from the police station, was taken to a hospital for a psychiatric evaluation. He was expected to be charged with two misdemeanors, including bringing a weapon to school, police said.
The .22-caliber rifle came from the teen's home in Walnutport, police said. Some of the other items were found in his backpack.
He was smoking and listening to a radio in the stairwell when a teacher went to investigate and found him sitting with the rifle, officials said.
"No one was in danger at any time other than the student himself," Superintendent Linda Firestone said. "No one was held at gunpoint."
The school's approximately 2,000 students were directed to the nearby football field.
The high school, which does not have metal detectors, is about 50 miles north of Philadelphia.
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