Local News in Brief : San Clemente : Charges Sought Against Boy Who Shot at Bus

Police will ask the district attorney’s office to file a charge of assault with a deadly weapon against a 15-year-old San Clemente boy who fired a BB gun at a crowded school bus, a police spokesman said Friday.

The case will be handled in juvenile court, San Clemente Police Lt. Steve Bernardi said.

The youth who fired the BB gun Thursday afternoon told authorities he did it because “he just wanted to shoot at a school bus,” Bernardi said. “That’s why he did it. He gave no other reason.”

The youth’s 14-year-old accomplice will not be charged because he did not fire the BB gun, Bernardi said. Neither youth has been arrested before, Bernardi said.

Pat Parish, a neighbor of the boy, said: “He watches our house and feeds our dogs when we’re away. I think it was just poor judgment.”

The incident caused authorities and parents to panic, particularly in the wake of last week’s elementary school massacre in Stockton, where a gunman killed five children on a playground.

The school bus was carrying 50 to 60 students from Shorecliffs Junior High School about 3:20 p.m. Thursday when it was fired upon while traveling along Via Ballena, a residential street in San Clemente.

No one was hurt in the incident, but authorities recovered several BBs embedded in a half-opened bus window just an inch and a half from a student’s head.