{"id":110957,"date":"2026-01-08T22:03:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T22:03:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/110957\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T22:03:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T22:03:07","slug":"father-arrested-after-trafalgar-elementary-student-found-with-loaded-gun-in-backpack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/110957\/","title":{"rendered":"Father arrested after Trafalgar Elementary student found with loaded gun in backpack"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tA parent of a Trafalgar Elementary School student was arrested after law enforcement found a loaded firearm in the child&#8217;s backpack Thursday morning.According to the School District of Lee County, staff were alerted by the OPENGATE weapons detection system, which prompted a search of the student&#8217;s backpack.School district officials said the child was immediately isolated as authorities searched the backpack.The 5-year-old child told police that they did not know that the handgun was in their bag.According to the Cape Coral Police Department, the student&#8217;s father was arrested after he admitted to putting the 9 mm handgun in the child&#8217;s backpack to transport it to his car. He reportedly told the CCPD that he forgot to remove the weapon.The student&#8217;s father, James Edward Wilson IV, 50, is facing charges of child neglect and improper use of a firearm. This is a developing story and will be updated.DOWNLOAD\u202fthe free\u202fGulf Coast News app\u202ffor your latest news and alerts on breaking news, weather, sports, entertainment and more on your phone or tablet. And check out the Very Local Gulf Coast app to stream news, entertainment and original programming on your TV.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tCAPE CORAL, Fla. \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>A parent of a Trafalgar Elementary School student was arrested after law enforcement found a loaded firearm in the child&#8217;s backpack Thursday morning.<\/p>\n<p>According to the School District of Lee County, staff were alerted by the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gulfcoastnewsnow.com\/article\/lee-county-invest-school-security-growing-industry\/69514161\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">OPENGATE<\/a> weapons detection system, which prompted a search of the student&#8217;s backpack.<\/p>\n<p>School district officials said the child was immediately isolated as authorities searched the backpack.<\/p>\n<p>The 5-year-old child told police that they did not know that the handgun was in their bag.<\/p>\n<p>According to the Cape Coral Police Department, the student&#8217;s father was arrested after he admitted to putting the 9 mm handgun in the child&#8217;s backpack to transport it to his car. He reportedly told the CCPD that he forgot to remove the weapon.<\/p>\n<p>The student&#8217;s father, James Edward Wilson IV, 50, is facing charges of child neglect and improper use of a firearm. <\/p>\n<p>This is a developing story and will be updated.<\/p>\n<p>DOWNLOAD\u202fthe free\u202f<a href=\"https:\/\/qrco.de\/gcnapp\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Gulf Coast News app<\/a>\u202ffor your latest news and alerts on breaking news, weather, sports, entertainment and more on your phone or tablet. And check out the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.verylocal.com\/wbbh-ft-myers\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Very Local Gulf Coast app<\/a> to stream news, entertainment and original programming on your TV.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A parent of a Trafalgar Elementary School student was arrested after law enforcement found a loaded firearm in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":110958,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[1185,34635,209,211,210,212,2353,104,19762,4329,213,356,56550,4546,4719,197,56549,221],"class_list":["post-110957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-alert","tag-backpack","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news","tag-cape-coral-police","tag-child","tag-entertainment","tag-father","tag-gulf-coast-news","tag-late-news","tag-lee-county","tag-loaded-gun","tag-more-information","tag-school-district","tag-sport","tag-trafalgar-elementary-student","tag-weather"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110957\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}