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A Delaware man was arrested Friday after police found him in a New Jersey primary school parking lot with a loaded handgun and more than 130 rounds of ammunition, authorities said.
Police found Thomas J. Wilkie, 46, sitting in the front seat of his car and holding a .45 caliber handgun in front of Tamaques Elementary School in Westfield, New Jersey. announced the Union County Attorney's Office in a statement. According to the statement, he had two ammunition cartridges loaded and 130 cartridges in the trunk of his car.
Wilkie was charged with unlawful possession of a second-degree weapon, fourth-degree possession of hollow-tipped bullet point bullets and fourth-degree intrusion on school grounds, said the prosecutors. He is being held at the Union County Jail.
Police were called to the Tamaques primary school on Thursday around 16 hours. Thursday after reports that a man, later identified as Wilkie, was going to school and could be armed, prosecutors said.
A senior law enforcement official told NBC 4 that Wilkie's brother had alerted the authorities, saying his brother was mentally misplaced.
Wilkie would have gone to school to search for a faculty member with whom he had a relationship, a law enforcement official told NBC.
He reportedly entered the school without arms but did not find the woman and eventually returned to his car to call him, said the officer. The woman picked up and said that she was giving private lessons, but that she would be back at school later, according to NBC.
Wilkie then called his brother, said the head of law enforcement. The official told NBC that Wilkie's brother had called the Delaware state police and that the school had been locked up for safety.
Wilkie has been placed in police custody and is scheduled to appear in court for a first hearing on June 19, the prosecutor's office announced. If he is found guilty, he could spend between 5 and 10 years in a state prison.
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