The following story was previously published on Lake Legal News.
EUSTIS, Florida— On the first day back from holiday break, a 16-year-old Eustis High School student was arrested for having a loaded gun on campus Monday.
Jaiden Dylan Vickers, 16, is facing serious charges after pills and a loaded 9mm Kel-Tec handgun was found in his backpack that he left in a classroom during basketball practice, according to an arrest affidavit. Three pills were also found in a pill bottle in the backpack and the label on the bottle did not match Vickers’ name. One pill was an allergy medication, one was Ritalin and the third was Zolpidem, the affidavit states.
Vickers, a self-identified gang member, told the school resource deputy (SRD) he belongs to “Folk Nation, Gangsta Disciples” and denied knowledge of the gun. The SRD spoke to Vickers’ father and he said the boy posted a photo of himself holding a gun on Instagram and had his phone taken away as punishment, according to the affidavit.
Vickers then changed his story and said he used a rope with a magnet to retrieve the gun from Lake Eustis after one of his friends fired it, and it fell in the lake. Vickers was arrested for possession of a firearm on school grounds and two counts of possession of a controlled substance without a prescription. He was transported to the Lake County Jail and turned over to the Department of Juvenile Justice.
A recorded message went out to parents of Eustis High School students late Monday afternoon, informing them a gun was found in a backpack on the main campus. “No one was threatened or injured, however bringing a weapon to school is a violation of our code of student conduct,” the message stated in part.
