A Far Rockaway mother, whose seven-year-old son allegedly brought a .22 caliber handgun to school yesterday, has been charged with criminal possession of a weapon, reckless endangerment, endangering the welfare of a child and, following the execution of a search warrant at her residence, unlawful possession of marijuana, according to Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown.
The defendant, Deborah Farley, 53, of 21-18 Cornaga Avenue in the Far Rockaway section of Queens is presently awaiting arraignment in Queens Criminal Court in Kew Gardens, on charges of second- and third-degree criminal possession of a weapon, first-degree reckless endangerment, endangering the welfare of a child, unlawful possession of a pistol and/or revolver/ammunition and unlawful possession of marijuana.
According to the criminal complaint, Farley went to the principal’s office at Public School 362 (Wave Preparatory Elementary School), located at 535 Briar Place in Far Rockaway, between the hours of 10:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. on Thursday, January 17, 2013, purportedly to pick up her seven-year-old son for a dental appointment.
Shortly after leaving the school, Farley returned to the principal’s office and said she believed her son had given a gun to a friend in the school, stating that one of her sons had put
the gun, which was in a purple bag, inside of her seven-year-olds’ school bag at their home.
The principal allegedly searched the friend’s school bag and found an orange and black flare gun in the bag.
In searching Farley’s son’s school bag, police allegedly recovered a. 22 caliber firearm, a full magazine with ten .22 caliber rounds of ammunition and a clear bag containing fourteen .22 caliber rounds of ammunition from a purple bag inside of the school bag.
Farley reportedly told police she had purchased the .22 caliber pistol back in June or July for protection and that before she had left her apartment the night before she had put the .22 caliber gun in her son’s school bag, along with the flare gun.
She also allegedly stated that after she dropped her son off at the school around 7:50 a.m., she realized she had left the guns in her son’s school bag and returned to the school. Once outside the school, Farley allegedly checked her son’s school bag and her son said he had given the gun to a friend.
Farley then returned to the school and told the principal that there was a gun in the school.
The criminal complaint also alleges that police recovered four rounds of .22 caliber ammunition in a cardboard box in a bedroom in one apartment and seven small bags of marijuana from bedrooms in a second apartment.
