We received a tip from a viewer earlier this week asking us to stay on top of the story where a misplaced gun was found at Lee's Summit West High School. Read our story below. Share your story or idea with KSHB 41.
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A loaded gun sat unnoticed for six weeks in the Lee's Summit West High School Theater after police did not search the theater when notified by its owner that he could have left the gun there.
Two students found the gun the morning of Aug. 26 and reported their discovery to school administrators.
A school administrator called police.
A Lee's Summit police officer checked the serial number and realized the gun was reported missing on July 11.
Dr. David Buck, Lee's Summit School District Superintendent, said in a letter to families on Aug. 26, "at no point were school officials made aware of the possibility that a weapon may have been left on campus."
The owner told police the night he lost the gun, he went to a Hy-Vee grocery store, to a friend's house and to a performance at the school later that night.
That's when he noticed his gun was missing. He looked around his seat but couldn't find it. He called police around 11 p.m. to report the gun missing.
The officer investigating the missing gun believed "it was presumably left at Hy-Vee and that a search for the weapon was done by the owner at Lee Summit West, so no additional notifications were made and no additional searches were conducted," Sgt. Chris Depue, spokesperson for the Lee's Summit Police Department, said.
A parent reached out to KSHB 41 in September, concerned that no one told parents about how this incident happened and what steps have been taken to prevent it from happening again.
Depue said what happened was frustrating for the department.
"It was an oversight on our part, and we have worked to close the oversight so it does not happen again," Depue said.
Depue said the department closed that oversight by providing training for the officer and the supervisor about critical notifications.
Depue said the detective on the case will submit the case file to the Jackson County Prosecutor's Office for review in about two weeks.
According to the incident report, the owner of the gun could face a charge of carrying a concealed weapon in a restricted area.
“Our schools are gun-free campuses, and at no point should a firearm have been brought onto our campus,” Buck said. “The safety and security of our students and staff is of the utmost importance in the district, and school officials are evaluating this situation with our police partners.”
Buck said the district would conduct a thorough review of the incident and share updates as necessary.
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