A central Iowa man is facing charges after his 8-year-old son took a handgun to school. It happened Monday in the Des Moines suburb of Johnston. Johnston Police Chief Bill Vaughn says no staff or students were injured.
“We worked with the county attorney’s office and the determination was made to arrest the dad for a child endangerment charge and a gun law violation tied to failure to properly store and secure the weapon away from his child,” Vaughn said. The boy is a second-grader at Lawson Elementary School.
His father is 31-year-old Louis Friestad. “We’re not talking about bad people here,” Vaughn said. “The Friestad family is a long-time Johnston family with a respected name. It’s just one of those things that could happen to anybody if they’re not storing their weapons properly and keeping them away from kids.”
Johnston Police took possession of other weapons found in the Friestad home that were not properly secured.