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Cops Arrest Gun-Toting Middle School Teacher Wanted For Road Rage Robbery
Charles Ha So was wanted for allegedly attacking a fellow motorist in San Jose in February and stealing his phone, police said.
A middle-school teacher in San Jose, Calif. was allegedly packing heat when cops came calling to cuff him for an earlier road rage incident, police said.
The arrest of Charles Ha So, 35, at Chaboya Middle School in San Jose, Calif., came months after he allegedly attacked a fellow motorist and stole his cell phone, according to the San Jose Police Department.
The incident occurred Feb. 18 near San Jose State University, when So allegedly became enraged at another driver, snatched the man’s cell phone, and fled the scene, police said.
After months of investigation, clues led cops to So on Wednesday, when officers tracked him down at Chaboya Middle School, where So had just started working this month, officials with the Evergreen School District told the San Francisco Chronicle.
Officers with the department’s MERGE unit, a division of SWAT, descended on the school in the afternoon, after students had left for the day, according to the San Jose Mercury-News. When cops located the alleged road rager, they found a loaded handgun in his bag, but police told the Mercury-News there was no indication at this time that he was going to use that handgun against staff or students.
The gun was registered to So, according to the Chronicle.
In an interview with the Chronicle, Charles Crosby, the district’s communications director, called So’s alleged behavior “reprehensible,” and said So — who had passed a background check this month — had been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation.
Speaking with the Mercury-News, Crosby said the news of So’s alleged possession of a handgun came as a particular shock, as students and faculty had participated last year in a national walk-out against gun violence.
“We are beyond appalled that a teacher, even a brand-new one, would think it is remotely okay to bring a weapon into one of our schools,” he said, according to the newspaper.
So faces charges of robbery and possession of a firearm at a school, both felonies, according to a statement from the San Jose Police Department.
[Photo: San Jose Police Department]
