A tip that a student at Pine Bluff High School was armed with a handgun Monday resulted in the arrest of a girl who allegedly told police she had brought the gun to school “and was going to shoot herself in the school bathroom.”
Jordyne Austin, 17, appeared in Pine Bluff District Court Tuesday, where District Judge John Kearney ruled that prosecutors have probable cause to charge her with possession of a gun on school property, a felony.
According to a probable cause affidavit from Pine Bluff Police Department Detective Scott Norton, police were sent to the campus at 10:30 a.m. after school officials said they had received a tip from a confidential informant that a female student had a gun.
Austin was escorted to the school office, and when she was searched by school personnel, a .25-caliber semi-automatic pistol loaded with seven rounds was found, along with two packs of cigars and two lighters.
Norton reported that when Austn was questioned with her mother present, she allegedly said she and her mother had gotten into an argument “over things she had done.”
Austin allegedly said that after her mother went to work, she went to an old truck that was parked in the yard and got the gun.
Kearney set a $10,000 bond for Austin, who said she would hire her own attorney.