Social media photo of student with gun prompted lockdown at Academy Park High School

The teen in custody posted the photo from inside the school, investigators say.

A section of the Academy Park High School football stadium.
(Daniella Heminghaus for WHYY)

A section of the Academy Park High School football stadium. (Daniella Heminghaus for WHYY)

This story originally appeared on 6abc.

A social media post showing a student with an apparent gun inside Academy Park High School in Sharon Hill, Pennsylvania prompted a lockdown and a massive police response Friday morning.

Officers and emergency personnel responded to the school around 9:30 a.m.

A teenage student was taken into custody a short time later. Officials say the gun seen in the photo needed to be checked out to make sure it was an actual working firearm. They said it was not loaded.

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The teen in custody posted the photo from inside the school, investigators say.

“The good news for everyone in the community is that this incident ended peacefully. The juvenile, who brought what looks to be a firearm to school, has been apprehended,” Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer said.

No one was injured in this incident.

Emotions were running high as parents showed up. They were outraged that a student brought a gun into the school.

Officials say law enforcement acted quickly.

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“We can’t have juveniles with firearms. We can’t have them do that in school, and we certainly can’t have them posting about it because it’s going to set off a whole chain of events that could lead to another tragedy where a child is killed,” Stollsteimer said.

Academy Park High School was the scene of a tragedy last summer in which 8-year-old Fanta Bility was killed by police gunfire. Those officers opened fire after two teens exchanged gunfire outside a football game that night.

Sharon Hill Borough Council voted 6-1 on Thursday night to fire the three officers involved, identified as Brian Devaney, Devon Smith and Sean Dolan.

Each officer was charged with 10 counts of reckless endangerment and one count of manslaughter and involuntary manslaughter, according to the charging documents.

According to court records, all three men had their preliminary arraignments Tuesday morning and each was released on unsecured $500,000 bail.

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