Boy fires gunshot just off high school grounds

A 15-year-old boy was arrested Friday after police say he fired a handgun just off Bloomington High School North property before school started to scare another student, police said. \nPolice also arrested another 16-year-old boy, after school officials found the gun in his backpack later in the school day, according to a news release issued by the Bloomington Police Department. \nPolice believe the 15-year-old boy fired a .25-caliber Beretta semi-automatic pistol into the ground near the feet of another 15-year-old boy. According to the release, the boy admitted to taking the gun from his grandmother's house and firing the shot, which he said he did to scare the other boy, who he said had been picking on him.\nThe incident might also have stemmed from a disagreement over a girl, police said. Other students were apparently around when the shot was fired but no one was injured.\nThe 15-year-old boy reportedly gave the weapon to the 16-year-old boy, who put it in his backpack and went to school with it, according to the release. When school officials heard about the incident, they searched his backpack and found the gun.\nThe 16-year-old boy now faces preliminary adult charges of possession of a handgun without a license on school property, a class C felony. The 15-year-old boy was referred as a juvenile on preliminary charges of intimidation with a deadly weapon, a class D felony; criminal recklessness with a deadly weapon, a class D felony; and possession of a handgun without a license, a class C felony, the release said. Because the alleged crimes were committed within 1,000 feet of school property, they became felonies, according to the news release.