Original Blog Entry: First grader brings gun to school mom forgets she put it in daughter's backpack

truesee — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 10:39:31 GMT

First grader brings gun to school after ex-NYPD mom forgets she put it in daughter's backpack

Bob Kappstatter, Rocco Parascandola and Ben Chapman

DAILY NEWS WRITERS

Saturday, October 22nd 2011, 4:00 AM

Steve Cole/Getty

A retired cop put her gun in a backpack used by her daughter - who then took it out at school.

A retired NYPD detective nearly caused a tragedy on Tuesday when she put a loaded pistol in her daughter's backpack - and the girl inadvertently brought it to school.

Marian Brioso, 46, of Staten Island, put her .25-caliber Taurus handgun in her 6-year-old daughter's book bag, planning to remove it later, police sources said.

But Brioso, who's married to NYPD Capt. Paulino Brioso, forgot to remove the gun and her daughter unwittingly brought it to her first-grade class at the Transfiguration School in Chinatown.

[The kid] went to school, opened up her bag and took it out. She said something, and a teacher came over, a police source said.

Cops couldn't say why Brioso put the gun in the bag.

School administrators called 911 after discovering the weapon, and police removed it without anyone being hurt, but parents and kids were shaken by the close call.

No one was hurt - but maybe she don't know it's real gun and bang, bang, bang, said Steve Chang, 60, of Chinatown, whose son is a kindergartner at the Mott St. school.

The girl's scared classmates met with school therapists on Wednesday. The kids and their parents are still upset.

I'm really worried. I don't know why a child would have a gun, said Emily Lam, of Chinatown, whose daughter is a second-grader at the school.

Brioso wasn't charged in the incident, but police notified the Administration for Children's Services. Cops also removed two other guns that were legally licensed to Brioso from her home.

Brioso, who joined the force in 1994 and retired last year, wasn't around when the Daily News tried to reach her at her house Friday night.

Reached at his office at Police Headquarters, Capt. Brioso referred reporters to the deputy commissioner for public information's office.

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