Child Taking Gun to Rancho Cucamonga School Leads to Arrest of Father

Staff Writer

Friday, March 24th, 2017

RANCHO CUCAMONGA – A grandmother was stunned when she located a gun inside her 6-year-old grandson’s backpack on Friday, March 10th. Immediately she called the Rancho Cucamonga Police Department to report her finding.

When speaking with the young child, deputies learned that the child received the gun from another Los Amigos Elementary School student prior to returning home from school. The child was unable to give the name of the other student or any information to identify him. Deputies took possession of the firearm and the School Resource Officer assumed the investigation. At the time, the students were out for spring break and investigators chose to continue the investigation when school was back in session due to the concern of otherwise compromising the investigation.

The students returned from spring break and the child who brought the firearm to school was identified. The deputy learned that the child got the firearm from a safe at the child’s home. The parents of the child were identified as Charles Neazer and Nikki Horseman.

A search warrant was served at the child’s home on Tuesday, March 21, 2017, and the gun safe was located. Additional firearms were located inside of the safe, that was accessible to the children. Neazer did not know that a firearm was missing from the safe, or that his child had accessed it.

Children Family Services assisted and took all four children living in the home into protective custody. Neazer was arrested and booked into the West Valley Detention Center for child cruelty with possibility of injury or death and for having a firearm accessible to children. Neazer was released on bail in the early-morning hours of Thursday, March 23, 2017.

Anyone with information regarding this incident is urged to contact the Rancho Cucamonga Police Department at (909) 477-2800. Callers wishing to remain anonymous may contact the We-Tip Hotline at 1-800-78CRIME (27463), or you may leave information on the We-Tip website at www.wetip.com