Student Arrested After Threats : School: Police say a week of smoldering tensions led 13-year-old to aim loaded pistol at classmate.

Police arrested a junior high school student after he allegedly attempted to avenge a classroom slight with a .22-caliber pistol.

The 13-year-old boy drew the gun Thursday in front of his first-period teacher, allowing her to take students to another room before he walked through a courtyard and he pointed the loaded and cocked pistol at another seventh-grader, authorities said. Police did not identify either youth.

While the armed boy shouted threats, three older students intervened, Officer David Kersch said. One grabbed the gun and wedged his finger under the hammer to prevent it from firing. Two other youths held the boy until the third wrested the weapon away.

Before security officers could be summoned, the heroics were over, Kersch said. No one was injured.

The incident grew out of two others, said Del Evans, principal at Julius Wangenheim Junior High School in Mira Mesa.

Earlier in the week, the second youth tripped the arrested boy as he walked into a summer school class they had attended for four weeks, authorities said. A brief scuffle followed in which the second youth was struck.

The animosities smoldered until Wednesday when the second youth gathered about 10 friends when school let out. Fearing the group, the first boy fled and returned the next morning with a pistol that belonged to an adult relative, Evans said.

After interviewing both youths, Kersch said: “The boy (who was arrested) thought he was going to be ambushed by the second kid and 10 older friends. . . . He doesn’t like the odds, so he goes home and gets an equalizer.”

The boy faces a felony charge of possession of a firearm on campus and a misdemeanor charge of displaying a gun in a threatening manner, Kersch said. He was released into the custody of his mother.