EUSTIS – Eustis Police were dispatched to Alee Academy Tuesday morning in reference to a student having a gun on campus.
When officers arrived, Alee Academy officials told officers that while checking students in, the teacher who is in charge of locking up backpacks, thought that one student’s bag was a little heavier than it should be and also thought she felt what seemed like a gun at the bottom of his bag.
The teacher then searched the student’s bag and found a small black pistol along with some shotgun shells.
When Eustis Police Officers spoke with the student, 16-year-old Damieum Nathaniel Hurst, he refused to answer any questions but kept telling officers that the gun was not his and that he did not know how it got in his bag. Hurst insisted that someone in line with him must have placed it in his bag.
Officers searched Hurst’s bag and recovered a .22 caliber long rifle sterling handgun, a loaded magazine with five live rounds of .22 caliber ammunition, an empty extended magazine, and three Winchester 12 gauge shotgun shells.
During the investigation, officers were made aware of a previous incident that Hurst was involved in on August 31. In that incident, Hurst and two other students got into a physical altercation in which Hurst was “beat up”. The incident was resolved within the school and no report was filed with the police. All three students involved were suspended from school.
Officers also discovered a video Hurst posted on Facebook which showed Hurst walking around the Bates Avenue area of Eustis looking for the other two students to confront them.
Hurst’s video, posted below, goes on for almost 15 minutes with Hurst walking the streets of Eustis searching for the two students in an attempt to confront them. The video contains explicit language.
After watching the video, officers asked Hurst if he brought the gun to school as protection or for retaliation. Hurst again told officers the gun was not his and he did not plan on any retaliation against the other two students.
Hurst was arrested and charged with possession of a firearm on school grounds, possession of a firearm by a minor, and possession of a concealed weapon. Hurst was booked into the Lake County Jail where he is being held without bond according to the arrest report.
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