By Mitchell Willetts
The Charlotte Observer
ROCKFORD, Mich. — A parent recently found a gun in a Michigan school parking lot, raising concerns and prompting a letter to parents — but now police say they know where the firearm came from, news outlets reported.
The handgun belongs to a firefighter with the city of Rockford, who lost the gun while dropping his child off at school, the Rockford Department of Public Safety said in a Sept. 5 news release.
According to investigators, the firefighter placed the pistol on the roof of his vehicle on the morning of Sept. 3 and was in such “a hurry to get his child to school” that he forgot about it. He drove all the way to the school with the gun on his roof, but it finally slipped off and clattered to the ground after he pulled into a school parking lot to drop off his kid, police said.
Someone found the pistol that same morning, locked it inside their vehicle and called a deputy with the Kent County Sheriff’s Office, who then notified police in Rockford, according to the release.
It was another parent who discovered the pistol, WZZM reported.
Though nobody was hurt, the incident prompted a letter to parents from the superintendent of Rockford Public Schools, WXMI reported.
The firefighter was not on the clock when the incident happened and wasn’t driving a vehicle belonging to the city, police said.
“The employee feels tremendous remorse over his error, and we are grateful to the citizen who secured the weapon and alerted police,” the release said.
The Kent County Prosecutor’s Office is reviewing the investigation and will decide what charges, if any, will be brought.
Rockford is a roughly 15-mile drive northeast from Grand Rapids.
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