Helicopter flushes out armed boy

Press, 28 February 1980, Page 1

Helicopter flushes out armed boy

PA Dunedin The police ordered 88 children to leave their primary school at Brighton yesterday as armed marksmen stalked a boy, aged 15, armed with a rifle. The boy fired one shot before a helicopter with a police sniper aboard found him hiding in bushes in the Brighton Domain, bordered on one side by Brighton’s main street and on the other by the sea. The boy was missing from Mosgiel on Tuesday night with a Winchester ,340 sporting rifle. An armed offenders squad and 20 uniformed police, three with dogs; hunted him for three hours and a half yesterday after a Brighton resident saw the boy soon after noon, thought he was acting suspiciously, and told the police. About 12.20 p.m. a patrol near the domain heard a shot. An armed offenders squad and back-, up police were sent in and traffic officers sealed - off the road. The search concentrated round the domain and at first police believed the boy was holed up in sand dunes behind the adjacent Brighton Primary School. The school’s principal (Mr W. Morris) was told of the situation and instead of giving the 88 children their usual lunch time play outside took them to a big room at the back of the school. When the police ordered

the evacuation of the, school soon after 1 p.m. the children were taken to the top end of the domain and then to the Brighton Hall. until parents were called to collect them about 2 p.m.

A helicopter was called in from Taieri Airport at 2.30 p.m. to help in the search, which concentrated on scrub and dunes at the bottom end of the domain. As well as the pilot it carried an armed offenders squad member with a high-powered rifle. The helicopter made several sweeps of the area. Finally, as it hovered over the far end of; the domain at 3.35 p.m., the boy, wearing a bush shirt and jeans, stepped out of the bushes.

The police ordered him to put his hands on his head and then to lie on the ground. After he had been searched, he led two policemen to the spot where he had left the rifle. He. was taken., to the Mosgiel police station for questioning and was later charged with the unlawful possession and discharge of a firearm. He will appear in the Children and Young Persons Court todayj