Police: Hoffman Estates woman with BB gun charged with misdemeanors
An 18-year-old Hoffman Estates woman was charged with misdemeanors after police determined she had a BB gun at a village intersection Wednesday morning, causing a school bus driver to report her as a threat, authorities said.
Amy Aguirre is charged with disorderly conduct and criminal damage to property, police said. Sgt. John Bending said the latter charge stemmed from damage to a vehicle. Police did not have information Thursday about bail or Aguirre's court date.
Palatine-Schaumburg High School District 211 bus driver Joe Caporale said what he observed just before 7 a.m. Wednesday at the corner of Governors Lane and Haddam Place was the most disturbing thing he'd encountered during seven years on the job.
He was in the process of picking up a group of students on the right side of the bus when he saw and heard a young woman on the left side aiming a gun in the air and yelling incoherently.
He said he didn't think many or any of the students on the bus were aware of what was happening, as many look down at their phones during the drive, but those he was picking up did.
Caporale said he immediately reported what he saw, just as a school bus from another company was driving toward him in the opposite direction.
"We're trained," Caporale said. "We're not first responders, but we're first reporters."
When he arrived at Hoffman Estates High School, he and the students he'd picked up at that stop immediately went to the police officer assigned to the school to provide further details of what they'd seen.
Bending said all schools in the area were immediately notified.
Though Hoffman Estates High School is about 1½ miles from the intersection, off-campus lunch was canceled for students that day.
District 211 officials said there was no evidence of a threat against the school but that the measure was being taken as a precaution.