Police say gun found at Hinesburg Community School was loaded

HINESBURG, Vt. (WCAX) - Police now say a gun found by a student on the playground of the Hinesburg Community School on Friday morning was loaded.

Hinesburg police said in a Facebook post on Monday that when officers attempted to search the school, a kindergarten class was outside and school officials told officers they were not allowed to search that area because they didn’t want to scare the kindergartners.

Later on, another student found a bag containing an unidentified substance in that same area. In their Facebook post, police identified that substance as cocaine.

Principals from the Hinesburg Community School sent an email to parents Friday evening, alerting them to the incident.

Champlain Valley Schools Superintendent Rene Sanchez says the school never went into lockdown, which is why many parents never found out about the police response until the end of the day.

Police are still investigating a connection between the gun and cocaine that were found and an incident that happened Thursday night where a vehicle pursuit ended with a suspect crashing his vehicle and taking off on foot. The Hinesburg Police Department identified that suspect as Jermaine Rushing, 26.

We have not yet learned the ages of either of the children who found the gun and the cocaine. According to a second notification to parents, support was provided to students and staff in the second grade.

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