SRO Accused of Pawning Service Weapon, Bringing Pellet Gun to School
The SRO admitted to pawning his sheriff’s department-issued firearm six times.
Deputies say a school resource officer (SRO) at Mango Elementary School in Seffner, Florida pawned his school-issued service weapon on several occasions, as well as other security items assigned to him.
Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister announced the arrest of SRO Leroy King, 36, on Friday, reports CBS17.
Authorities also say King reported to work with a toy pellet gun, reports Fox13.
During a random inspection, King’s supervisor noticed that the SRO wasn’t wearing a holstered firearm but instead had a pellet gun. The supervisor began to ask questions. After King gave several excuses, he eventually confessed to pawning the firearm, along with six other items assigned to him by the sheriff’s department, including a ballistic vest and weapon-mounted light.
King also admitted he had pawned his agency-issued Glock Model 22 .40 caliber handgun six times between June and November, reports WTSP. He allegedly pawned the items due to financial difficulties.
Authorities have recovered the ballistic vest and light from the pawnshop and have given it back to the school security department.
King faces eight counts of giving false information to a pawnbroker.
“He was charged with the duty of protecting our most valuable and precious resource, and that’s our children,” Chronister told Fox13. “As a parent, I am disgusted that we have an individual that we have spent time training, that our school security system spent time hiring, with one sole purpose, and that sole purpose was protecting our young people.”
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About the Author
Robin Hattersley, Editor-in-Chief
Robin has been covering the security and campus law enforcement industries since 1998 and is a specialist in school, university and hospital security, public safety and emergency management, as well as emerging technologies and systems integration. She joined CS in 2005 and has authored award-winning editorial on campus law enforcement and security funding, officer recruitment and retention, access control, IP video, network integration, event management, crime trends, the Clery Act, Title IX compliance, sexual assault, dating abuse, emergency communications, incident management software and more. Robin has been featured on national and local media outlets and was formerly associate editor for the trade publication Security Sales & Integration. She obtained her undergraduate degree in history from California State University, Long Beach.
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Sounds like more reasoning for all school staff to be armed and to allow carry permit holders to carry on campus.
As a retired police Lieutenant with 40 years of law enforcement experience and still active as a reserve officer, I am not surprised to read of such an incident. There is no excuse for what the deputy did, and yes I agree with the Sheriff that the safety and security of the children at the school was grossly compromised. The punishment, though harsh, is just under the circumstances. However, if the deputy was truly in financial distress it seems to me that within an agency as top notch as the Hillsborough Co. SO help for one of their own should or would have been available (maybe it was). There is no excuse for dishonesty in the law enforcement profession no matter what, but it is also a shame that the men and women who serve often struggle to make ends meet. Yet, they lay down their lives to ensure the safety and freedom of total strangers. Oh well, I guess that does not make as good of a story for the news as a Cop who pawns his equipment and goes to jail. Just saying.
What IS IT with COPS and their money issues???