Police arrest teen suspected of attempting to enter Wisconsin elementary school with weapon

Nov. 8 (UPI) - A teenager, who police believe was armed, was arrested shortly after he was stopped by staff as he tried to get into a Wisconsin elementary school.

Police said a 13-year-old boy tried to get into a side door but was unable to and then ran away as he was confronted by Roosevelt Elementary School staff as he made his way to the front entrance of the school, Kenosha Unified School District Superintendent Jeffrey Weiss told reporters .

"We can confirm that this was not just a suspicious individual," Kenosha Police Chief Patrick Patton said at a press conference. "We believe that this was actually an armed suspect with a firearm and there was no legitimate reason to enter the school."

Authorities later obtained a video of the teen holding a semi-automatic rifle and discovered that he had looked up school shootings online and had made comments to his fellow school students for weeks before Thursday.

"We're just going to re-encourage everybody when they see something, say something, help us out," Patton said. "Have those talks with your children. This video shouldn't have been seen by us today. This should have been reported to us earlier."

Weiss praised the staff at the elementary school for being proactive and confronting the teen before he got into the school.

"I can't stress really how heroic our office staff was," Weiss said. "They helped avert a disaster."

The teen was still in custody on Friday and his mother was cooperating with authorities.