A South San Francisco teen that brought a handgun to campus faces numerous felony charges after being arrested by San Bruno police on Feb. 2.

Lt. Marc A. Catalano of the San Bruno police department said it all began after a call from a citizen who reported that the subject had a gun on campus.

Officers arrived at approximately 11:30 a.m. and located a subject matching the description of the person with the gun near the school cafeteria.

“When officers tried to make contact with the teen, he fled leading the officers on a brief foot pursuit”, said Catalano.

During the chase the 17-year-old tossed a semi-automatic handgun that was immediately recovered by San Bruno police officers. The subject was ultimately apprehended without further incident.

The teen, who was not a Skyline student, was transferred to Hillcrest juvenile facility in San Mateo, where he faces felony charges of assault with a deadly weapon, brandishing a firearm, possession of a firearm on school property, and a misdemeanor charge of resisting arrest.

According to a Feb. 2 press release issued by San Bruno P.D., the 17-year-old brought the gun to Skyline to settle a dispute with a student.

“This is a specific occurrence unrelated to any other student on campus”, said Catalano, who clarified that the teen had no problem with any other student.

Catalano said that this is an unusual event for what he considers a safe Skyline campus.

Crime statistics for violent crime on Skyline campus show only one incident of aggravated assault in 2005, the same as Cañada College. The College of San Mateo had one non-forcible sex offense, and no other reported violent crime for 2005. Crime statistics for 2006 will not be released until later this year.

In the Feb. 9 issue of Skyline Shines, President Victoria Morrow states, “Skyline is a very safe community college. Nonetheless, we must always be vigilant to ensure the safety of ourselves and everyone on campus. Our safety procedures work, as evidenced here, but that does not replace us looking out for one another and immediately reporting anything that seems out of the ordinary.”

Student Services Vice President Loretta Adrian echoed Morrow’s views on the safety of Skyline campus and added praise for the citizen who called the police and San Bruno police for handling the incident. “Kudos to whoever alerted the police, because no matter how much security we have, we need to look out for each other”, Adrian said.