School officials notified law enforcement after being notified the day before of the student’s possession of a firearm, Phoenix Police Department communications director Donna Rossi told NBC News.
The teaching center was closed “as soon as the school authorities were informed of the situation on campus,” it said.
Rossi reported that the student was sent to a juvenile detention center on charges including “underage possession of a firearm, carrying a gun on school property, disrupting an educational facility” and other charges.
The unidentified student remains in custody while the police intelligence unit, along with school and district officials, continue the investigation.
Owning semi-automatic rifles is legal in Arizona, but minors are not allowed to purchase or own guns unless they have written consent from a parent or legal guardian, according to the Giffords Law Center for the Prevention of Gun Violence.
These deadly devices are located off school property except for those authorized to carry them or use them in approved programs.
Over the past ten days, two teenagers have been identified as perpetrators of various shootings in New Mexico and Texas, showing the level of exposure to guns among young people across the United States.
According to Texas police, a 12-year-old boy has been charged with murder for shooting and shooting an employee at a restaurant in that state last weekend.
Meanwhile, police on Tuesday identified a New Mexico teenager as the gunman who killed three elderly women in an attack before officers fatally shot him.
Beau Wilson, 18, died when Farmington police officers confronted him shortly thereafter around midday Monday, Deputy Police Chief Kyle Dowdy told reporters.
Semi-automatic rifles have been involved in the 20 deadliest mass shootings in the United States since 2006, according to the NBC News report.
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