A 15-year-old boy was arrested and expelled on March 8 after police discovered he brought a BB gun to Decatur High School.

According to a Federal Way Police Department report, the student was arrested just outside of his horticulture class after police noticed a handgun grip sticking out of his left jacket pocket.

Officers escorted him out of his class after identifying him as the suspect who had allegedly pointed a gun at a track student the evening prior.

The morning before the boy was arrested, police were dispatched to search a school bus after the mother of a Decatur High School student reported her son was afraid to get on the bus because he heard there was a student on the bus who had a handgun. The student had heard from a friend who had seen the suspect with a gun in his pocket while waiting for the bus.

Police pulled over the school bus in the 31400 block of 42nd Ave. SW, which had Lakota Middle School students on it, and searched it with no results.

After officers returned to Decatur, they learned that a 15-year-old girl was approached by the suspect as she was heading to her car after track practice at the school. She told police he was an acquaintance, not a friend.

The report states the boy pointed a gun at her and pulled the trigger, which released one “click” sound. The following day, she learned it was a BB gun but, at the time, she thought it was real and that it made her nervous.

After the encounter, she said the boy walked away laughing.

Post-Miranda, the boy told police that on March 7 he ended track practice at Decatur and started to walk home. It was then that he noticed a gun in the bushes near the gym. He said he picked it up and realized it was a BB gun and showed it to some students who were by him at the time.

The boy took the BB gun home with him and decided to bring it with him on the bus, the same bus police had stopped earlier that day to search.

According to the police report, he brought the gun with him to school “because he did not want his younger brother to have access to the gun.”

Additionally, he said he did not point the gun at anyone and that the BB gun was in his pocket the whole time.

The student was transported to the police station and his parents were informed.

Upon seizure of the BB gun, police noted it resembled a “full size Beretta type handgun” but was unloaded.

“We responded quickly and worked with local law enforcement,” said Federal Way Public Schools spokeswoman Kassie Swenson. “We take the safety of our students seriously.”

Swenson said the school district has a zero-tolerance policy of weapons and weapon look-alikes.

Aside from being expelled, police are recommending the case be forwarded to the juvenile prosecutor’s office for a “possession of a dangerous weapon on school grounds” charge.