Judge orders teen held on $100,000 bail

Youth allegedly took handgun into a high school

Walter West Jr., 17, of Dorchester is a student at Hyde Park High School.

A West Roxbury District Court judge ordered a Dorchester teen yesterday to be held on $100,000 bail for allegedly carrying a loaded gun into English High School on Thursday, Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said.

Walter West Jr., 17, was charged with unlawfully possessing a firearm and ammunition, unlawfully carrying a loaded handgun, unlawfully carrying a firearm in a school, trespassing, and resisting arrest, Conley said in a statement. West will return to court on Dec. 8.

"The defendant had a cocked and loaded 9mm handgun inside a school," Conley said. "With rounds in the chamber and the magazine, it presented an extremely dangerous situation in a building full of innocents."

Four other Dorchester teens - Damien Oliver and Tyrone Rutledge, both 17, and a 13- and a 16-year-old, whose names are not being released because they are juveniles - were charged with trespassing and disturbing a public assembly, Conley said.

Oliver, a student at English, was held on $1,000 bail, Rutledge on $2,500, and the two juveniles were released to their parents, according to Conley.

Judge Thomas C. Horgan ordered the five teens to stay away from each other, and the three 17-year-olds to be monitored by global positioning systems and to abide by an 8 p.m. curfew if they post bail. The 13- and 16-year-olds must attend school and abide by a 7 p.m. curfew, Conley said.

Oliver, whom West's lawyer identified as the defendant's cousin, allegedly let the other four teens, who were not English High students, into the school through a side door on Thursday morning, and then led them to an upper floor where they got into an altercation with other students. Although Oliver is a student at English, he was in an unauthorized part of the building, according to the district attorney.

Boston school police responded and apprehended West after a struggle, at which time they found a Sturm, Ruger & Co. P95DC handgun in his backpack, Conley said. The other four teens fled, but Boston police, school police, and an MBTA police officer assigned to the school police unit apprehended them, the district attorney said.

West's Hyde Park-based lawyer, Timothy J. Lowney, said the Hyde Park High student has asked that the prosecutors view the school surveillance video.

"He believes that the school videotapes will vindicate that the backpack that the gun was found in was not his," Lowney said.