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Boy, 17, accused of bringing handgun into Children Services residential unit, charged with felonies
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
The Trumbull County Children Services executive director says a boy accused of bringing a semiautomatic handgun and six rounds of ammunition back to his home at the agency never gave the agency reason to believe he was capable of something like that.
The boy, 17, purportedly brought the gun back to the residential treatment facility, where he lived, after a family visit Saturday. No one was injured by the handgun.
Executive Director Tim Schaffner said his agency works off “probable cause and protecting the rights of the kids” in determining what restrictions to impose on juveniles in the facility.
In this case, there was no “probable cause” to believe this boy needed to be searched before he re-entered the facility. “We would only be able do a pat-down if there was probable cause and it were part of the treatment plan,” Schaffner said.
The boy was on an approved family visit Saturday, but he went to another address that was not approved, Schaffner said.
The boy’s father contacted children services to say his handgun was missing from his Elm Road address, Warren police said. The father said the boy was the last person to be in the room with it before it came up missing.
Children services contacted the Warren Police Department, which went to the agency at 9:31 p.m. Sunday and found the weapon and ammunition after “a brief investigation,” police said.
The boy was taken to the Trumbull County Juvenile Justice Center, charged with theft of a firearm and illegal conveyance of a weapon onto the grounds of a detention facility or institution, both felonies.
Capt. Rob Massucci of the Warren police said he doesn’t recall there being an incident before involving a gun at children services, but he believes the agency likely is to take action to prevent it from happening again.
Schaffner said this was a serious incident.
“Any time there are firearms around kids, it’s extremely dangerous,” Schaffner said, adding that the incident “prompts a whole look at how do you balance client rights with the safety of kids. They are my area of focus moving forward.”
Schaffner said the incident has prompted a “root-cause analysis” to determine what went wrong and what to do about it. For one thing, there will need to be a review of the boy’s visitation plan, which previously indicated it would be safe for him to take a family visit.
The residential treatment facility is not a lockdown facility and isn’t allowed to treat juveniles like they are inmates at a juvenile detention center, Schaffner said.
Juveniles stay there if “it’s the most appropriate place they can receive treatment until they can enter [a foster home] or independence if they are of age at 18,” Schaffner said. This boy turns 18 in a few months, according to a Warren police report.