Mother faces criminal charges after son allegedly takes gun to school

Los Angeles City Atty. Mike Feuer on Wednesday announced that he filed criminal charges against a woman whose 17-year-old son allegedly took a loaded semiautomatic handgun to school.

Feuer said the action is “unique in the history of the city” and a first step toward holding parents accountable for poor supervision of firearms in the home.

The woman, Leah Wilcken, was charged with four misdemeanor criminal counts: allowing a child to carry a firearm off-premises, allowing a child to take a firearm to school, contributing to the delinquency of a minor and permitting a child to be placed in a situation where their person or health is endangered.

“Guns have no place in or around our schools,” said Feuer. “Our office will continue to take aggressive action to protect our kids. And I call on parents to prevent potentially devastating consequences by safely storing every firearm they own.”

The charges stem from an incident on May 13, 2014, when the 17-year-old boy allegedly brought a fully loaded .45-caliber semiautomatic handgun, with an additional fully loaded seven-round magazine, to Will Rogers High School in Van Nuys.

The weapon and ammunition were recovered from the boy’s backpack by L.A. School Police Department officers after a witness reported seeing the firearm, officials said.

The student, who has not been identified because he is minor, has also been charged in the incident.

“This is a very rare occurrence,” school Principal Sunshine Sepulveda-Klus told The Times on Wednesday.

She added that school officials quickly identified the presence of the weapon and took appropriate action.

Feuer said Wilcken refused to cooperate with officers in their investigation.

The day after the gun was reported at the school, Los Angeles police officers served a search warrant at Wilcken’s home and recovered four additional guns, including a shotgun. One of the guns was in an unlocked kitchen cabinet, the shotgun was behind a bedroom dresser, and the two other guns were in the dresser’s drawers, according to Feuer.

If convicted, Wilcken faces up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine per count. Greg Dorfman, of the city attorney’s gun unit, said prosecutors will also seek to prohibit the possession of any weapons as a condition of any sentence.

In addition to the charges, Feuer announced that Women Against Gun Violence will educate parents on safely storing firearms at schools where the city attorney’s Neighborhood School Safety Program is being established.

Feuer, who as a state lawmaker wrote several pieces of gun-control legislation, said his prosecutors are now working closely with Los Angeles police to verify that people prohibited from possessing firearms in neighborhoods around schools and in gang injunction zones are in compliance with state law.

“The aftermath of a tragic school shooting is the last place we should be,” Feuer said. “We should be ahead of it.”

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