A 16-year-old student at Westwood High School was arrested Tuesday after a school official found a gun in his belongings.

Richland County authorities were alerted to the theft of a gun from a home earlier in the day, Sheriff Leon Lott said in a news release. The weapon had been in a locked box which was broken open. The gun owner told deputies that his daughter had high school friends visiting at the house the night before.

Officials at Westwood High were informed and the gun was quickly found among the belongs of one of the daughter’s friends, Lott said. The boy, who has not been publically identified because he is a minor, carries all his belongings with him for a reason not stated by the sheriff’s department. He told authorities he had no intention of using the wespon to hurt anyone at school. He was taken into custody and awaiting a hearing in family court.

Westwood High School is in the Richland 2 school district and located in the northern part of the county.

Rachael Myers Lowe