Teen had rifle, ammo by school

UNITED STATES: A Dallas-area teenager was being held on US$1 million bond yesterday after a police officer encountered him sitting in his car outside of a high school sporting event with a semiautomatic rifle and 100 rounds of ammunition.

Rowlett police arrested Diego Horta, 17, on Wednesday night on drug and weapons charges. Officer Cruz Hernandez, a spokesman for the department in Rowlett about 32km northeast of Dallas, said the officer approached the teen while patrolling near Rowlett High School and the city’s community centre as two sporting events were wrapping up.

‘‘We’re glad that our officer encountered him early,’' Hernandez said. ‘‘He had the weapon, ammunition and a mask ... whatever we prevented, the outcome was going to be bad.’'

An earlier release from the Rowlett police department said police had no specific evidence to substantiate beyond a reasonable doubt that Horta planned to harm anyone. Hernandez said with the recent school shooting in Parkland, Florida, and highway shootings in Dallas, including the fatal shooting of a postal worker and shots fired into a police car on nearby Interstate 30, the department had been exercising added caution.

Court records did not show attorney information for Horta, who is charged as an adult with possession of a controlled substance and unlawful carrying of a weapon in a weapons free zone. Court records showed a Dallas County magistrate set the $1 million bond on the drug charge, and Horta was scheduled to go before the magistrate to decide if an additional bond would be set on the weapon charge. -AP