Two boys arrested with pellet gun at closed Santa Rosa school

On the second day of summer recess Tuesday morning, two 15-year-old boys were arrested at Santa Rosa's Biella Elementary School on suspicion of possessing a pellet gun on school grounds.

Five police officers responded shortly before 11:40 a.m. to a report of two males on the Jennings Avenue campus with what appeared to be a firearm, said Sgt. Steve Pehlke.

Resident Nick McCabe said he was with his wife and toddler son at the adjacent Dutch Flohr Park when an officer came jogging past carrying what appeared to be a semi-automatic rifle. At least two more officers soon followed. McCabe later saw two police cruisers at the front of the school.

When the officers arrived, the boys were sitting near the playground, “passing the gun back and forth,” according to a police press release. The officers ordered the boys to lay on the ground “and everybody complied,” Pehlke said.

The boys were arrested and taken to Juvenile Hall for possessing a weapon on school grounds and for being minors in possession of an alcoholic beverage.

School was not in session but the campus was open Tuesday as an election polling place, the press release stated.

You can reach Staff Writer Robert Digitale at 707-521-5285 or robert.digitale@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @rdigit.