Displaying BB gun on school grounds lands man in hot water

LACONIA — A city man who allegedly brandished an B.B. handgun while confronting some teens he believed were bullying his son was ordered held on $4,500 cash-only bail yesterday.

Ray C. Ellis, 50, of 10 Wallace Court appeared in 4th Circuit Court, Laconia Division and charged with one felony count of reckless conduct, one felony count of criminal threatening and one misdemeanor count of disorderly conduct.

City police said Ellis went to Pleasant Street School Thursday afternoon and told the students, who were playing basketball, to stop bullying his son. While he was walking back to his car, police said he and one of the boys, a 12-year-old., began arguing and Ellis turned around and walked back to the children.

The witnesses said they all knew Ellis’s son and that Ellis allegedly told the boy. “he was a dead man.”

Ellis allegedly returned to his car and grabbed an inoperative B.B. pistol from the front seat of his car and began walking back toward the children. Police said he didn’t point the gun at anyone but when the children saw it they ran behind the building.

Police said seven people witnessed the incident: the 12-year-old boy who allegedly mouthed off to Ellis, a 13-year-old boy; a 12-year-old girl, two other 12-year-old boys, a 17-year-old boy, and 19-year-old John Reynolds whose role is not known but who gave a statement to police.

Someone called 9-1-1 and the students told responding officers who Ellis was and gave them a description of Ellis’s car. A B.O.L.O. alert was sent to area law enforcement and Ellis was found by Meredith Police, taken into custody and released to a Laconia senior patrol officer.

After being made aware of his rights, Ellis agreed to speak to police, eventually admitting he only went to talk to the kids he said were bullying his son but lost his temper when one of them called him a 35-year-old loser and “kept running his mouth.”

He allegedly admitted to the officer he grabbed the B.B. pistol and pointed it in the air. He said “he made a terrible mistake and that he was sorry.”

Ellis also said he gave the B.B. gun to his 16-year-old son who turned it over to police.

Superintendent Bob Champlin said yesterday that administrators and guidance councilors from the middle and high schools are working to understand what happened to create the situation that played out Thursday on the playground of Pleasant Street School.

“I just haven’t learned enough about the specifics to comment yet,” he said.

“Our concern constantly is about safe and respectful schools,” Champlin continued. “Inside and outside, we have a responsibility.”

Champlin said all of the students in question are either middle or high schoolers who went to Pleasant Street Elementary School Thursday afternoon to play basketball and take advantage of the unseasonably warm day.

Normally, said Champlin, the playground is used in the spring by the elementary school during their after school programming but it is too early in the season for outdoor programming.

He said there were a number of adults and some children who participate in Project Extra and the daycare program inside Pleasant Street School during Ellis’s encounter with the older students but they were not in any danger.

He said the Pleasant Street Elementary School Principal Kathleen D’Haene was still at the school during the 4:45 p.m. encounter and was told about the incident by responding officers.

“When the police came we made sure all of the children were safe,” Champlin said.

As of 5:30 p.m. yesterday Ellis was not incarcerated in the Belknap County Jail.

If he posted bail, Judge Jim Carroll ordered him to stay away from all school property, away from the streets surrounding any of the city‘s schools, stay away from the people who witnessed the alleged incident, and to be monitored by an electronic bracelet. He is also prohibited from going to Robbie Mills Field.