A 16-year-old teenager from Suffolk County, New York, was arraigned on an indictment on Tuesday, November 10, 2026, on felony weapons charges stemming from the discovery of an allegedly stolen handgun inside Smithtown High School West last month, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office. The teenager — who is not named in any official release because of his age, and is not named here for the same reason — appeared before Acting Supreme Court Justice Karen Kerr. He is charged with second-degree criminal possession of a weapon, criminal possession of a weapon on school grounds, and fourth-degree criminal possession of stolen property, prosecutors said. All of the charges are allegations; he has not been convicted of anything and is presumed innocent.

Source: Long Island Guide / Suffolk County District Attorney's Office

Justice Kerr set bail at $50,000 cash, $100,000 bond or $500,000 partially secured bond, according to the district attorney's office. The teenager is represented by attorney George Terezakis. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Yinping Liang of the Major Crime Bureau, and the investigation was conducted by Detective Harvey Royce of the Suffolk County Police Department's Fourth Squad. The next court appearance is scheduled for November 23, 2026. Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney's office announced the arraignment; Tierney praised the school staff and officers whose response, the office said, kept the school safe on the day the weapon was found.

How the case began on October 27

The case began on Tuesday, October 27, 2026, at Smithtown High School West, at 100 Central Road in Smithtown. According to the Suffolk County Police Department, Fourth Precinct patrol officers responded to the school after a 911 caller reported that a student had posted a picture with a gun on social media. At approximately 1:55 p.m., school staff searching the student's backpack found a knife, a firearm and a magazine, police said. The student was arrested at the school the same day. In its original announcement, the department charged him with criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree (loaded firearm on school grounds), criminal possession of a weapon on school grounds, criminal possession of a firearm, and criminal possession of stolen property in the fourth degree (firearms), and said he was scheduled to appear as an adolescent offender at First District Court Youth Part in Central Islip on October 28. Detectives asked anyone with information to call the Fourth Squad. “A criminal charge is an accusation,” the department noted. “A defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.”

Source: Suffolk County Police Department

What the school district told families

Two days later, on October 29, Smithtown Central School District Superintendent Mark Secaur wrote to families addressing what he called the understandable anxiety in the community. The student involved was never unaccompanied while on school grounds, the district said; school administrators, district security personnel and the Suffolk County Police Department school resource officer discovered the contents of the backpack, and police immediately took the student into custody. Because the situation was identified, controlled and resolved at that point, the district said there was no active threat to students or staff, and lockdown or lockout procedures were not necessary. The district said it has a zero-tolerance policy for this type of behaviour, that the student will not be permitted on the grounds of High School West or any other district property while the process plays out, and that he will be subject to arrest if he returns. News 12 Long Island reported that police increased their presence at the high school following the arrest and a separate investigation into reports of a potential additional threat.

Source: Smithtown Central School District

The immigration detainer — and what it does and does not mean

The district attorney's office also identified the teenager as a Colombian national who, prosecutors say, is unlawfully present in the United States, and said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has lodged an immigration detainer in the case. A detainer is a request by ICE that a local jail hold a person, or notify ICE before release, so the agency can seek custody; it is not itself a criminal charge, and prosecutors said ICE is seeking custody of the teenager following the criminal prosecution — that is, after the New York case has run its course, not instead of it. The immigration allegations, like the weapons charges, are the prosecution's account at this stage: the teenager, through his attorney, has the right to contest both the criminal charges and any immigration action, and no court has ruled on either.

Background: how New York handles cases like this

Under New York's Raise the Age law, 16- and 17-year-olds charged with felonies are treated as “adolescent offenders”: their cases begin in the Youth Part of the superior court, exactly the route this case took with its October 28 Youth Part appearance in Central Islip, and the court weighs factors including the seriousness of the alleged offence when deciding how the case proceeds. Weapons on school grounds sit at the most serious end of that system — which is why this case is being handled by the district attorney's Major Crime Bureau rather than as a routine school-discipline matter. For school communities, the sequence in Smithtown is the one officials say is supposed to happen: a report from the public (here, a 911 call about a social-media picture), a controlled search by staff with a school resource officer present, an immediate arrest, and no injuries and no lockdown — followed, as the district's letter shows, by weeks of parental anxiety that a single incident can leave behind.

What happens next

The criminal case returns to court on November 23, 2026. Between now and then, the teenager remains barred from all Smithtown district property under the district's zero-tolerance process, separate from the criminal case. The immigration detainer, if it is acted on at all, would come into play only around the conclusion of the criminal proceedings. Suffolk County Police have kept their appeal for information open through the Fourth Squad, and the district attorney's office is expected to address the case again as the indictment moves toward hearings and, potentially, trial.