Atlanta police are investigating reports of a gun being brought to a school bus fight.
While detectives continue to investigate, Atlanta police spokeswoman Officer Kim Jones said the adults who approached the bus in response to a fight claim to have been carrying a TV remote control pretending it was a gun to scare people.
Just before 8 a.m. Monday, police responded to a call at Whitehall and Glenn streets about a fight with weapons on a Jackson High School bus.
Officers arriving on the scene learned the altercation between students led one of the participating students to call her mother, Jones said.
Witnesses told police a man and woman arrived at the scene in a red Pontiac Grand Prix, and the male got out of the vehicle and pointed what appeared to be a handgun at the students on the bus.
Atlanta Public Schools spokesman Stephen Alford said the man attempted to board the bus, but was stopped.
Police learned the tag number of the vehicle and went to the home of the car’s owner, Jones said.
According to police, the woman said her two daughters and son were being harassed by some girls who had ties to the 30 Deep Gang, and she came with her boyfriend when she was called.
The three siblings exited the bus from the emergency door at the rear and got in the car with their mother and her boyfriend and left the scene, Alford said.
None of the siblings attended school Monday, school officials said.
School district detectives said the altercation was a result of a series of off-campus fights that has occurred over the past two weeks between a group of female students.
The individuals allegedly targeting the woman’s daughters fled on foot when the mother and boyfriend arrived, police said.
When asked about the reports that her boyfriend had a gun, the woman denied the accusations, police said.
The woman initially refused, but eventually gave investigators her boyfriend’s name and information.
Police learned that the man had been in the house and likely left out of the backdoor just before they arrived.
Investigators are now seeking warrants and continue to investigate the incident, Jones said.
The bus was followed by school security resource officers as it took students home Monday afternoon, school officials said.
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