Loaded rifle, marijuana seized from student's car in Triton High School parking lot

Police officers on Thursday arrested an 18-year-old after seizing a loaded rifle and marijuana from his car, which was parked in the student lot at Triton High School.

The weapon was discovered inside the car after someone complained about the smell of marijuana coming from a blue Ford Fusion in the parking lot at 215 Maynard Lake Road.

The officer looked through the window and was able to see marijuana and a high-capacity drum magazine for a rifle.

Officers seized a loaded Diamondback brand 5.56 caliber rifle, two loaded drum magazines, one standard magazine, various caliber ammunition, marijuana and marijuana paraphernalia from the car.

"The administrator opened the car and that's when they discovered this assault rifle with the ammunition and the drum," Harnett County Sheriff Wayne Coats told WRAL News. "There looks to be somewhere around a minimum of 150 rounds that was loaded in those drums."

Octavius Gerrard Purcell, 18, of Coats, was removed from a classroom and charged with possession of a weapon on school grounds and possession of marijuana/drug paraphernalia. He was being held in the Harnett County Detention Center on a $250,000 secured bond.

On Tuesday night, 16-year-old Triton student Da'Shawn McNeill was shot and killed near a park on North 13th Street in Erwin. As authorities investigate that crime, they're trying to figure out what Purcell was planning to do with the weapon and ammo in his car.

"You cannot have firearms on school property," Coats said. "To me, it's just reckless because he knows that. He knows the law. We just don't know what his intent was."