Queens dad defends 7-year-old son who brought gun and ammunition clip to school: ‘He was afraid for his life’

A Queens second-grader whose backpack held a handgun and ammunition clip likely wanted the weapon for protection from schoolyard bullies, the boy’s father said Friday.

Walter Orozo detailed his 7-year-old son’s fears shortly after the boy’s mother was arrested on weapons charges in the Thursday incident that led to a lockdown at the Wave Preparatory Elementary School in Far Rockaway.

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“He was afraid for his life,” Orozo said of his son. “He was afraid to go to school. The kids were picking and picking on him, but the school wouldn’t do anything to protect him.”

Orozo, 55, said he didn’t know how the child acquired the .22-caliber handgun or the ammunition, but he believes the little boy went gun shopping in self-defense.

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“My wife, she complained to the school but the school wouldn’t protect him,” Orozo griped. “The school did nothing.”

The father suggested the weapon could have come from the boy’s mother’s two older sons, who live in the same Far Rockaway apartment building with them.

Investigators were looking to speak with the second-grader’s 21-year-old brother, who has a criminal record and may own the gun, police sources said.

But the little boy’s mother took the fall for the unlicensed handgun, telling police that she placed the weapon and the ammunition in the Batman backpack on Wednesday — and forgot to remove it.

Deborah Farley, 53, didn’t realize the 7-year-old brought the weapon, a flare gun and the bullets into the school building until about two hours after she dropped him off at 7:30 a.m., police said Friday.

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She tried to get the gun back by signing her son out of school for a bogus dental appointment, but failed to find the Phoenix Arms semi-automatic pistol in his bag, police said.

Believing the weapon was with one of the boy’s classmates, Farley confessed the whole thing to the school principal. Word of the weapon caused a school-wide lockdown, with terrified students cowering in their classrooms.

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Farley was later busted for criminal possession of a weapon, police said.

Investigators searched her second-floor apartment and found additional ammunition along with seven small bags of marijuana, police said.

The 7-year-old and his 9-year-old brother were taken into protective care by the Administration for Children’s Services, police said.

Although the backpack held a magazine with 10 rounds and 14 other bullets in a plastic bag, it was unclear if the weapon was loaded. But school officials took no chances.

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“On the loudspeaker, the principal told us there was someone near the school with a gun,” said Santos Hercules, 11. “We had to stay quiet till it passed . . . I felt scared, but I wasn’t too scared because I knew I had to be strong.”

Shakyla Howard, 8, a third-grader, said her classroom didn’t have a lock.
“They made us turn off the lights and hide behind the teacher’s desk next to the closets,” she recalled. “Our teacher almost started crying because she didn’t want us to get hurt.”

Parents were frustrated at a lack of answers from school officials.
Jessica Cox, 25, said she’s thinking about taking her son, Devonte Small-Gibbs, 8, out of the school.

“I asked one of the cops what happened, and he just said: ‘Nothing to be worried about,’ ” she said, fuming.

“Someone brought a gun — that’s something to worry about! I’m ready to change schools. This makes me nervous.”

With Rachel Monahan

rparascandola@nydailynews.com