Man arrested for possessing weapon on school grounds

Published 4:12 pm Thursday, March 12, 2020

LIVE OAK — An adult student at RIVEROAK Technical College learned a lesson last week.

Timothy David Michels, a 41-year-old from Live Oak, was arrested Thursday for possession of a firearm, electric device or destruct device at school.

The suspect had an electric device, or what Suwannee County Sheriff Sam St. John described as a combination of a Taser and a flashlight, on campus during school hours.

St. John said the suspect showed some other students the weapon and they alerted a teacher at the school, who told Deputy Mike Landis, the school resource officer at RIVEROAK.

“According to Florida statutes, that’s considered a weapon and you can’t have a weapon on school property,” St. John said. “I think the guy was just showing it off in front of the kids.

“He just had it with him on school property and this is the end result.”

While St. John said there were no threats to use the weapon, nor does he believe that there was any ill intentions from the suspect to use the weapon, he said the situation shows the importance of students speaking up when they see something.

“That’s what the kids did, which is a good thing,” St. John said. “It was a Taser, but it could have been a gun and we want to make sure they report something like that too.”

Bill Brothers, the assistant superintendent for administration of the Suwannee County Schools, said the district was thankful the situation ended without injury but that it is easily solved by not bringing a weapon to school, period.

“You can’t do that,” Brothers said. “Thankful nobody got hurt and that it wasn’t used in an intent of malice but just its mere presence is enough to be a significant violation.”