Toddler takes loaded gun to Michigan daycare
A parent was taken into custody by police this week after a toddler at a Michigan daycare pulled from their backpack a loaded handgun in a holster, police said.
No one was hurt in the Monday incident in Canton Township, and Police Chief Joseph Bialy praised daycare staff for their handling of the situation.
“I’ve watched the video, I’ve seen what their staff did,” he said at a news conference Monday. “And they were prepared and ready to be able to remove this firearm and keep all the kids safe.”
The parents involved were not identified by police, and no criminal charges had been filed by Tuesday afternoon.
One of the parents is a law enforcement officer in a neighboring jurisdiction, Bialy said. That was not the parent who was taken into custody, he said. He did not belive the weapon was a service weapon.
The firearm — a handgun that was inside a holster — came into the building in a backpack, Bialy said.
The incident was captured on video that shows the toddler remove the firearm from the backpack, the chief said.
“It’s shocking to see,” he said.
A teacher was in the room the entire time, saw what was happening and took swift action to intervene, Bialy said.
“Had that not happened, I do not know where we would be right now, or what kind of conversation we would be having,” he said.
The family has been dis-enrolled by the daycare center, NBC affiliate WDIV of Detroit reported.
While Bialy praised the center’s safety protocols, he said the daycare center would also start searching backpacks entering the building.
The Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office said Tuesday afternoon that a warrant request was being reviewed but there would be no arraignment that day.
Bialy called the situation a serious incident and that police were treating it that way. He stressed the importance of safe storage of firearms.
“I don’t think there was any ill intent by truly anyone involved,” Bialy said. “I think it really falls back on safe security of a firearm.”
“The law is clear”: If a child is present or anticipated to be present, firearms must be secured, he said.
KioskNews shows a cleaned-up reading view extracted from the publisher’s page — the original always lives on their site, not ours.