10-Year-Old Boy Arrested For Shooting BB Gun At School Buses

METHUEN (CBS) – A 10-year-old boy has been arrested for allegedly shooting a BB gun at two buses. No one was injured, but both buses were damaged.

The buses were filled with K-8 students Wednesday when suddenly glass sprayed across the buses.

Methuen Police say the drivers of both buses traveling on Pelham Street originally assumed the damage was somehow from a rock or something else that had been kicked up from the road. But a mechanic found the two BB pellets; they're unsure whether there were more fired.

The investigation led police to a 10-year-old boy who allegedly fired them from his home. The weapon has been seized. The boy lives in town but is not a student of the public schools.

Investigators say they're taking his arrest and charges extremely seriously regardless of his age, because of just how devastating this could have been.

"You couldn't imagine, if your child was on the bus," said Methuen Police Captain Kristopher McCarthy. "What could've happened. The severity. If the bus driver got injured and something happened to the bus while they're driving down the roadway or if a small child was shot by a BB."

His case will continue in juvenile court. He's facing some serious charges: malicious damage, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, and multiple counts of assault with a dangerous weapon — one for each of the students on the buses.