A photo posted on Myspace.com lead to the arrest of a 38-year old West Haven woman for failure to properly store a firearm. In the photo, one juvenile was pointing the gun at another.
A West Haven Connecticut woman was arrested for failure to properly store a firearm after her gun showed up in a photo posted on Myspace.com, according to
boston.com. The photo was of a 14-year old middle school student pointing the gun at his juvenile friend, and has since been removed from the site.
It is reported that the 14-year old took the gun while visiting the home of his friend, posed with the gun and his friend for a picture, and posted it to the popular website. The owner of the gun, 38-year old Elizabeth Paris was later arrested and charged with risk of injury to a minor, reckless endangerment and failing to properly store a firearm.
A school resource officer at Bailey Middle School was informed of the Myspace picture in April and brought the matter to the Special Victims Unit for investigation. The arrest was made on Tuesday.
The online version of the
New Haven Register reports that there are two issues of concern in this case; the need for parent's to properly secure firearms, and, with the popularity of social networking sites, parents must be vigilant and aware of what kids are posting to the internet.
“With gun ownership comes a certain level of responsibility where you are obligated by law to ensure that the gun is not going to be accessed by a child or used by a child,” said Sgt Martin Garcia. It was that failure to properly secure the firearm which led to Paris' arrest and subsequent charges.
“Not only should parents properly secure any dangerous weapons, but they should also be equally vigilant in monitoring what their children are doing on the Internet,” said Police Chief Ronald M. Quagliani.
