A male juvenile in his early teens faces numerous charges after allegedly breaking into two Alexandria elementary schools and stealing equipment. The teenage suspect also posted pictures from inside one of the schools at 2 a.m. on Instagram, as well as a picture of a laptop computer belonging to the principal of Cora Kelly Elementary School.
The first incident occurred at Charles Barrett Elementary School (1115 Martha Custis Drive) on the afternoon of Friday, July 12. Security footage revealed a juvenile suspect enter the school main office at around 3:55 p.m. and pick up a portable speaker and take a photo of it, according to a recently released search warrant affidavit.
The teen is also suspected of breaking into the school on July 23, and was identified after a still photo from a security video was shown to a school resource officer. In all, two sets of master keys, an iPhone belonging to Alexandria City Public Schools, several emergency hammers, and an orange JVC portable speaker were stolen, according to the search warrant affidavit.
The next incident occurred on Aug. 3 (Saturday) at around 2:15 a.m. at Cora Kelly Elementary School (3600 Commonwealth Avenue). The suspect allegedly stole a Lenovo laptop owned by ACPS and assigned to the principal at Cora Kelly. The principal later informed police that they were able to see the email address of the person who logged into the laptop.
On Aug. 4, the teen posted a photo of a hallway on Instagram and said that it was of an abandoned school at 2 a.m. When asked about which school, the teen wrote, “cora kelly.”
A picture of a laptop was also posted on the student’s Instagram account, and Cora Kelly’s principal later confirmed that it was the one that was stolen.
Security footage of the incident showed the suspect using an orange emergency hammer, similar to the type stolen from Charles Barrett Elementary, to smash an unknown object, according to the search warrant affidavit.
The student faces three charges of trespassing, petit larceny, burglary and receiving stolen property.
