Two T.C. Roberson students arrested after loaded gun found on campus

Deputies moved quickly onto T.C. Roberson High School on April 14 after the Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office received information about a firearm around 9 a.m. The investigation turned up a loaded handgun with a 17-year-old student and ammunition with a 14-year-old student, prompting a large law-enforcement presence around the Asheville campus.

Officials said all students and staff were safe, and classes continued normally once the weapon and ammunition were located. Even so, the episode put the school’s safety system under strain, with deputies, school staff and investigators working to determine whether the gun and ammunition posed any broader threat to the campus.

The case highlights the central question parents in Buncombe County ask after any weapons scare: whether the reporting chain worked early enough to stop a gun from becoming a more serious threat. In this instance, the sheriff’s office said it acted as soon as it got information about the firearm, and the response was visible enough to secure the scene while investigators sorted out what happened. The immediate outcome suggests the report reached law enforcement in time for a swift intervention, but it also shows how little margin exists when a weapon is brought onto school property.

The arrest of two students at different ages, one 17 and one 14, also underscores the breadth of the problem school officials face. A loaded handgun and ammunition in separate hands on the same campus forced deputies to move fast, and it added another hard example of how quickly a school day can shift from routine to emergency. Buncombe County Sheriff Quentin E. Miller, who was elected in 2018 and sworn into office on December 3 of that year, leads the agency handling the case.

The incident was not the first gun-related scare at T.C. Roberson High School. In 2021, WLOS reported that a student with a firearm was taken into custody there by a school resource officer, and no one was harmed. For Buncombe County Schools, the latest arrest again raises the pressure on security procedures, threat reporting and the speed of communication when a weapon is discovered on campus.