UPDATE: Baltimore County police have made an arrest in the case of student bring a weapon to Perry Hall High School. Police say an 18-year-old male was taken into custody. The weapon seen in the viral video has been identified as an airsoft weapon. Police have identified all persons of interest and criminal charges are pending.
Captured on camera---high noon in the parking lot at Perry Hall High School on Thursday when a fist fight turned into a beat down as at least four others teamed up on a single victim.
Overwhelming odds made even more disturbing when a subject holding a rifle at his side steps into the picture.
"Well, I'm concerned. I'm really concerned. Wow!" said Tony Gonzales, a parent of a student at the school who says he received a robocall that night alerting him that there had been a fight on campus, but he wasn't expecting this, "In the message on the phone, he did address it. He said there was a firearm involved. That's all I know."
Baltimore County police responded to a 911 call for the fight, but the combatants had dispersed.
They say school surveillance video supports what appears in the cell phone footage.
"Anybody that has any information about this, we're going to be interviewing them. We have been doing a continuing investigation,” said Cpl. Shawn Vinson of the Baltimore County Police Department, “We're going to continue to look into this to try to determine who was involved in this fight and who is responsible for having a weapon on the school property if that's what this pans out to be."
In reaction to the beating and the presence of the rifle, police stepped up patrols in the area on Friday, but parents like Ed Custis say it's too little too late.
"Where are the people in the community to say, 'Enough is enough'? and when you allow for these things to happen, they're going to happen," said Custis when he was interrupted by a loud, gunfire-like sound coming from a passing car, "Prime example. Why would you allow a kid to come up here and do that... shooting off?"
Custis says a shooting in the school cafeteria five years ago should have been warning enough that something has to be done to better protect students here.
"What home would allow a child to bring a rifle out of the home? So that means that rifle has been in that car for days,” said Custis, “What more has to happen? Luckily, right now, no blood was shed, but some blood is going to be shed."
