WASHINGTON — The father of a 3-year-old preschooler, whose backpack contained a loaded semi-automatic pistol in Moten Elementary School Tuesday, will appear in D.C. Superior Court Thursday morning.
Anthony E. Chiles is charged with carrying a pistol without a license.
In a hearing Wednesday, prosecutors said Chiles dropped his son at school, Tuesday, leaving him with a school security officer.
When the boy was unable to tell the officer his name, the officer looked in the boy’s backpack for identification, and discovered a loaded Glock 17, 9mm semiautomatic pistol in the bag, with 15 bullets, including one in the chamber, according to The Washington Post.
Chile’s attorney told Magistrate Judge Renee Raymond the boy did not stay with his client the night before, but had stayed with his grandmother and another adult.
Prosecutors said Chiles was a danger, and should be held without bond.
With a 2007 felony conviction for cocaine possession, it would be illegal for Chiles to own a gun in the District.
According to the Post, Raymond called the prosecution’s evidence “ridiculously slim,” but ordered Chiles held in jail until Thursday’s hearing.
The school’s principal, Mireille Lopez-Humes, sent a letter to parents, informing them of the incident.
“At no time was there an immediate threat to the school,” said Lopez-Humes. “All students and staff were safe.”
