A Rockland County school went into lockdown Tuesday morning after a 14-year-old boy menaced staffers and students with a loaded pellet gun, then waved it at passing cars outside until a retired police officer wrestled it away, police said.
It was the second gun scare at the school in less than a year.
Orangetown Police Chief Kevin Nulty said the boy was taken into custody and no one was hurt.
The boy was in an office with a teacher and another student at South Orangetown Middle School in Blauvelt when he pulled the realistic-looking pellet gun from his backpack and wordlessly pointed it at the adult before running out of the school, officials said.
After leaving the building, the boy pointed the gun at several drivers -- trying to get them to hand over their keys -- police said.
One driver, a retired NYPD officer, tackled the boy to the ground, wrestling the gun away.
The boy will be taken to family court on charges of menacing, weapon possession and attempted robbery -- the latter because of the belief that the drivers were intended carjacking victims, authorities said.
The gun was loaded with soft pellets, which usually don't hurt people if fired from a distance, authorities said.
The school went into lockdown at around 9 a.m. during the gun scare. The same school had a lockdown on June 9, 2009, when an irate parent barged in and held the district superintendent at gunpoint.
In that case, the superintendent, Ken Mitchell, eventually disarmed the man, Peter Cocker, of Tappan. Cocker was convicted of kidnapping and sentenced to five years in prison.
Today's incident "did certainly bring back a very unpleasant memory," said Mitchell.
Blauvelt is a bedroom community and hamlet of Orangetown about 20 miles north of New York City.
